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Book review: France den Haut a timely warning on hipsters

12/12/16, 8:32 PM

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Globalisation

Book review: France den


Haut a timely warning on
hipsters
The bohemian-bourgeois class have
unwittingly helped create disaection
with globalisation

A new bourgeoisie has emerged in dynamic urban centres, says


Christophe Guilluy Rex/Shutterstock
YESTERDAY by: Anne-Sylvaine Chassany

You live in a large city. You have a university


degree, a decent job, consider yourself a liberal on
social issues and a humanist. You believe in a
tolerant society and perhaps live in an ethnically
diverse area. You are also a pushy parent because
you want the best for your children. In short, you
are what sociologists call a hipster and meet the
https://www.ft.com/content/605e3be0-b71c-11e6-ba85-95d1533d9a62WQIhALUbWcEYZ0qZkRQywZe38yP61CIXQe9FE0s-uIQaIP7b&sharetype=gift

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Book review: France den Haut a timely warning on hipsters

12/12/16, 8:32 PM

definition of what the French call a bohemianbourgeois.


If this describes you, beware. This book by French
geographer Christophe Guilluy will make you fret
and question your moral integrity. French bo-bos
are largely responsible for the dislocation of the
countrys social and economic fabric, Guilluy
asserts in Le Crpuscule de la France den haut
(The twilight of upper France). His analysis, he
says, applies to all western societies.
Widening inequalities have favoured the
emergence of a new bourgeoisie living in dynamic
urban centres, at the expense of smaller towns,
suburbs and the countryside. According to Guilluy,
these economic disparities help explain the
populist wave that has materialised in the election
of Donald Trump as US president and the UKs
Brexit vote. In France, Marine Le Pen, the far-right
National Front leader, is predicted to qualify for the
presidential runoff next year.
The globalised system has erected its citadels in
the large cities, Mr Guilluy writes. Protected by the
wall of money and a desire to stay among
themselves, the upper classes can enjoy the
advantages of globalisation fully all the more so
that, far from peripheral France, they have
forgotten about the existence of a French working
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Book review: France den Haut a timely warning on hipsters

12/12/16, 8:32 PM

class.
In previous books, published in 2004 and 2010,
Guilluy gathered data showing how large swaths of
France have fallen behind. Outside the 15 or so
thriving cities, these regions tend to have higher
levels of poverty, unemployment, temporary jobs
and poor infrastructure. This is where the losers
from globalisation live blue-collar workers in
labour intensive industries while the likes of
Paris and Bordeaux attract graduates, high-earning
service jobs and start-ups.
This has given way to a sense of industrial and
cultural decline, according to the author. In these
disenfranchised corners of France, an increasing
number of residents abstain from voting or are
tempted by Ms Le Pens protectionist, antiimmigration rhetoric.
Guilluy wonders why peripheral France, which he
estimates is 60 per cent of the population, has not
forced the elites to put the brakes on globalisation
or limit its negative effects. His answer is that the
elites have been supported by the bo-bos.
The system does not rely on the elites only but also
on an important part of the population, a new
bourgeoisie, that resides in large cities and that
supported all the economic choices of the elite for
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Book review: France den Haut a timely warning on hipsters

12/12/16, 8:32 PM

30 years, he writes. The novelty is that these new


bourgeois have seized power by enunciating
morally superior principles: they back
globalisation in the name of tolerance, openness
and multiculturalism, describing critics as
backward-looking or racists. In effect, they have
allowed a system to thrive that only works for
them. Indirectly, Guilluy says, they have
contributed to wrecking old industrial bastions.
They we?
are
hypocrites:
they advocate
ethnic and
social
diversity, but
send their
children to
private
school. They
are in
cahoots with
a traditional
rightwing
bourgeoisie
in agreeing globalisation is a good thing.
What next? Guilluy predicts a revolution. The
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Book review: France den Haut a timely warning on hipsters

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citadels could be besieged. Paradoxically, it is at


a time when they [upper, or bourgeois, France] are
prevailing, by occupying the political, academic and
media space that they are losing their legitimacy
within the working classes, which form the
majority.
The authors anti-capitalist leanings are clear: and
no solution is outlined. The book has been
criticised for its lack of original data-gathering and
analysis. Some of the anti-establishment lines read
like FN slogans.
But Guilluys description of Parisian hipsters is spot
on and his warning strikes a chord. What if western
societies are on the verge of changing paradigms on
globalisation, free trade, free movement of people
and democracy? It is time to listen to the dissenting
voices.
Le Crpuscule de la France den haute (https
://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/2081375
346?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creativeASIN=2
081375346&linkCode=xm2&tag=finantimes
-21) by Christophe Guilluy, Flammarion RRP16
The writer is the FTs Paris bureau chief
Print a single copy of this article for personal use.
Contact us if you wish to print more to distribute to

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Book review: France den Haut a timely warning on hipsters

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others. The Financial Times Ltd.

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