Paper long abstract:

The life history of a Rwandan young man, born to become a peasant and currently aa foreman in a European building enterprise will be analysed within the conceptual framework of horizon and perspective as developed by Hannerz, and further supported by the case of a Tchétchène woman setteld in Belgium. It will be argued that the grasping of chances cannot be cut from the Foucaldian paradigm of agency. In conclusion, it will be pointed at the relativity of the evaluation of "chance", as grasping it combines an instant perception of an opportunity with the evaluation of ones own life trajectory at a point in time that is framed within a long term strategy of self-building, all this being shaped by the socially organized relation between self and society.