After writing my dissertation on social struggles in the context of deindustrialization in the Longwy steel-making region from 1978 to 1984, I am continuing my research on labor history, deindustrialization, and social mobilizations. In addition, I am currently working on the creation of a museum dedicated to the history of workers’ soccer and immigration in France, in collaboration with the Association for a Soccer Museum in Jœuf (AMFJ) and the municipality of Jœuf.

Project statement “The workers’ worlds of the Longwy basin under the test of deindustrialization (1979-2003).”   

This research work examines the consequences of industrial restructuring, and in particular the decline of the steel industry, on the workers’ worlds of the Pays-haut. These are working-class worlds with international connections that were structured around iron work for more than a century and that were profoundly disrupted by the economic and social changes of the 1980s and 1990s. It also questions the restoration of the modes of workers’ resistance that developed locally in reaction to these processes of industrial restructuring. Indeed, the various workers’ struggles that punctuated this historical cycle are significant in more ways than one. The challenge has been to take the conflict outside the workplace in a spectacular way in order to make it more visible to the rest of the population and to give it a media impact, thus allowing the workers’ movement to establish a relationship of strength not only with the employers, but also with the state. Finally, it examines the political culture of the mobilized workers’ communities and the dissensions that can affect them internally. 

You can find them in: La désindustrialisation en France  “Désindustrialisation et mobilisations ouvrières dans le bassin de Longwy 1978-2003” 52:20-1:00:45