Laïcité is What Laïcité Does

Abstract

France’s distinctive reaction towards ‘cults’ is generally described as a result of laïcité’s consubstantial problems with religious diversity. The aim of this article is to present an alternative way of thinking about the French cult controversy and, ultimately, about the concept of ‘laïcité’ as an explanatory framework for France’s response to religious diversity. It draws on empirical data to look at how notions such as ‘laïcité ’ and ‘cults’ are used in official discourses and translated into administrative practice. This approach emphasizes that laïcité is not a driving force that predetermines a unilateral response to ‘cults’, but that laïcité is as laïcité does, in other words a highly claimed and contested value, reflecting divergent political and administrative approaches to the cult phenomenon. The framework ‘ laïcité versus religious diversity’ is also undermined by another crucial observation. While it sees the cult controversy as primarily a religious issue, it seems that the recent revitalization of the combat against ‘cults’ was made possible by its partial dissociation from the religious sphere and its extension to a wider range of practices and new areas.