Professionalization and Politicization by Participation

The analysis of the trajectories of individuals and collectives invested in participatory institutions aims at questioning the biographical consequences of the participatory commitment, as well as the process of institutional recognition of associations. From an ethnographical research in Paris and Córdoba, we show that the individuals and the collectives who participate in a repeated and regular way join a double process of professionalization and politicization. The sociology and the multi-commitment of the regular participants sign however a failure of the participatory project "to include the excluded", whereas the effects of participation on the strengthening of civil society remain contrasted.