Bibliography

Breaking the Republican mold: French independent schools and agonistic pluralism amidst Franco-conformity

“…While Chabal does not dismiss criticisms of neo-republicanism as “an intolerable attack on liberal pluralism or simply as a thinly veiled form of neo-colonial domination targeted at Muslims,” he does find value in digging deeper into the variety of narratives of French Republicanism that exist and the ways they have clashed to produce contemporary French politics. On the one hand, the assumption of the entire Republican model and its principles—especially secularism, as noted by Political Scientist Per Erik Nilsson—as being inherently “non-ideological…as neutral and objective, as universal” sits uncomfortably with those who find themselves excluded from its embrace (Nilsson, 2018: 5). On the other hand, Chabal suggests that political critiques from movements such as droit à la difference have ushered in a “noticeable softening of France's attitude to such issues as diversity, race, multiculturalism, difference and ethnicity” (Chabal, 2015: 197).…”

“…Cultural divergence represented within the spectrum of independent schools, most notably in this moment by Muslim schools, sits most uncomfortably with the contemporary French “neo-republican consensus,” which has united a variety of perspectives on the right and left around vaguely defined notions of what can and cannot count as French (Chabal, 2015). The decision to ban headscarves from public schools in 2004 is an example of this consensus at work (Nilsson, 2018). But the targeting of political Islam and Muslim schools has ushered in real changes to the possibilities for pluralism—whether agonistic or permissive—in independent schooling.…”