The Yellow Vests

This edited volume offers the first comprehensive, empirically grounded analysis of the Yellow Vest movement, a defining social and political phenomenon in contemporary France. At a time of deepening democratic and social crises, this book provides original, data-driven insights into a movement that redefined protest and civic engagement.

Bringing together leading scholars, the volume explores the origins, evolution, and impact of this unprecedented mobilization through uniquely rich empirical material: surveys, interviews, digital data, and ethnographic observations. Each chapter delivers novel findings, from the spatial and social profiles of participants to the gendered dynamics of activism, the role of digital platforms in shaping mobilization, and the movement’s complex relationship with electoral politics. The book also sheds light on previously underexplored dimensions, such as the perception of the movement in the banlieues and the effects of the pandemic on participation.

By adopting a mixed-methods approach, the volume combines quantitative rigor with qualitative depth, offering a nuanced understanding of the movement’s trajectories. This empirical pluralism ensures that the analysis is both robust and innovative, capturing the movement’s diversity, internal tensions, and broader significance for the study of contemporary protest.

Accessible yet academically rigorous, this book is essential reading for researchers, students, and policymakers interested in social movements, French politics, and the future of democratic engagement.