96

This article analyses the emergence of a space of contention in resistance to “race crimes” in the Lyon area in the early 1980s. It focuses on Zaâma d’Banlieue, a plural women’s group based in a central district called “la Croix-Rousse,” which sought to engage young people, both “French and immigrants”, in opposition to police abuse and/or “race crimes.” Its work consisted in supporting local resistance and organizing protest in Lyon with the aim of bringing geographical and symbolic prominence to an illegitimate category and cause. The article seeks, on the one hand, to cast light on how resources were deployed to shape a space of contention by mobilizing the symbolic capital authenticity, and on the other hand to show how ideas circulated through the residential trajectories and professional mobilities of certain members of Zaâma.