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Paper short abstract

PSG supporters’ chant calling Marseillais “rats” draws on imaginaries of infestation and dirt. Based on multispecies ethnography in a deprived neighborhood, I explore how animalisation links rats and racialised residents, and how rethinking rats as coinhabitants challenges these hierarchies.

Paper long abstract

In the mud there are rats(#1)/In the sewers there are rats/They are everywhere, the rats/They are the Marseillais! This chant, sung by Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) supporters, not only reflects sporting hostility towards Olympique de Marseille (OM), but also refers to the idea of an invasive rat population in Marseille(#2). Intended as an insult to Marseille's human inhabitants, it is based on the process of animalisation(#3), and therefore inferiorization. It also contributes to the racialisation of certain human groups, especially in the context of a cosmopolitan city like Marseille, since the term 'ratons' was used to refer to colonised populations during French colonisation in North Africa. The very disqualification of the rat is what makes this process effective: its image is associated with dirt, sewers, contagion and danger, making it a 'harmful' animal and an undesirable presence in our spaces. Taking an environmental justice and multispecies ethnography(#4) stance, I will present my preliminary findings on the relationship between rats and humans in a deprived neighbourhood of Marseille where I live. While rats are the subject of intervention policies by city health and sanitation services (as pests to be killed), media coverage (as invasive and dirty) and scientific experimentation (as laboratory rats), they are rarely considered as inhabitants(#5), let alone as sentient beings with their own subjective experiences. How do social inequalities in housing intersect with, reinforce or exacerbate the disregard for certain species? How do these social inequalities relate to processes of animalisation that target marginalised and racialised populations?

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