Paper short abstract:

We propose to analyse the civic and civil ceremonies of reaching adulthood and the meeting of local politicians and young adults. The analysis of these ceremonies, aimed at young people who have turned 18 during the year in Switzerland, offer the opportunity to question political rituals and to submit new models of analysis and interpretations.

Paper long abstract:

We propose to analyse the civic and civil ceremonies aimed at young people who have turned 18 during the year in Switzerland. First, we will examine this ritualized encounter by describing the different stages and spaces through which young people and local politicians communicate, either during formal events, or during more informal and recreational moments. We will ask different questions, for example how widespread is the referential territory (local, national, transnational) and what imaginary icons (heroic figures; symbols and objects) are mobilized around the concept of citizenship during the ceremonies? Then we will focus more specifically on the analysis of the speeches made by the local politicians to these citizens in the making. Second, from a more diachronic perspective, we will present the results of an analysis focused on articles of two local papers. This perspective will allow us to bring to light the evolution of the ceremony from 1924 towards 2010. Based on previous ethnographical researches on institutionalised rituals (Ossipow 1991, 1997, 2009), we will show how we build a frame of analysis taking advantage of the contributions of authors such as Durkheim, Van Gennep, Bateson, Turner, Goffman, Bell, Rivière, Bourdieu and, more recently, Albert Piette (see for exemple Hermes 2005, 43).