Presentation short abstract

The 2023 French pension mobilizations wove ecological critiques into a typically social struggle. This paper examines how these ecological forays fostered ecosocial alliances and what this reveals about the prospects and limits of ecosocial politics in France and beyond.

Presentation long abstract

The French government’s 2023 plan to reform its pension system sparked one of the largest mobilizations in decades. Pension struggles have long epitomized the social question: a trade union front and mass worker participation frame the issue as one over labor, time and welfare. Yet, among these familiar rhythms, the 2023 episode wove in a new ecological thread. Notably through the penetration of ecological actors in this social struggle, a discourse emerged, linking critiques of longer working lives and productivism with concerns for sustainability. These ecological forays into pensions signal efforts to craft an ecosocial politics in France: ideationally, by connecting social and ecological critiques; and relationally, by forging ties between actors.

Scholarship highlights both the promise and the difficulty of linking social and ecological struggles. Divergences between labor’s productivist orientations and environmentalists’ ecological priorities often obscure what the two in fact share. Theoretical efforts to link social and ecological critiques of capitalism share the hope of forging alliances between traditionally distinct actors and, ultimately, enabling systemic change.

The puzzle of how a social issue like pensions becomes articulated in ecosocial terms raises questions on how this contributes to forging ecosocial alliances. Grasping the mobilizations as a laboratory where ecosocial ideas are invoked, developed, and negotiated, the research investigates the potentials and limits of ecosocial alliances, through the case of France. The research consists of critical discourse analysis and discourse network analysis of interviews and documents produced by ecological and social actors to assess ideational and practical alliances between them.