Journaliste à France Culture entre 2000 et 2011, il a rejoint Mediapart en mai 2011. Joseph Confavreux est membre du comité de rédaction de la revue Vacarme, a codirigé le livre La France invisible (La Découverte, 2006) et a publié deux autres ouvrages, Egypte :histoire, société, culture (La Découverte, 2009), et Passés à l'ennemi, des rangs de l'armée française aux maquis Viet-Minh (Tallandier, 2014). Il est aussi co-rédacteur en chef de la Revue du Crieur.
Declaration of interest
In the interest of transparency towards its readers, Mediapart’s journalists fill out and make public since 2018 a declaration of interests on the model of the one filled out by members of parliament and senior civil servants with the High Authority for Transparency and Public Life (HATVP), a body created in 2014 after Mediapart’s revelations on the Cahuzac affair.
India’s ruling nationalist Hindu party, the BJP, swept to power in 2014 after a landslide victory in parliamentary elections – the first time a single party had won an outright majority in the Indian parliament in 30 years, propelling Hindu hardliner Narendra Modi as prime minister of the world’s largest democracy. Joseph Confavreux turned to two young Indian philosophers, Shaj Mohan and Divya Dwivedi, for their analysis of what they call the “invention” of Hinduism, and why they argue that “being a philosopher in India can get you killed”.
President Emmanuel Macron is visiting New Caledonia as the Pacific archipelago prepares for a crucial vote in the autumn on whether to embrace full independence from its old colonial power. The French head of state will be there on the 4th and 5th of May, two grim dates in the calendar of recent New Caledonian history. On May 5th 1988, 19 hostage takers and two soldiers died after the military intervened to rescue gendarmes kidnapped by a separatist group on the island of Ouvéa. A year later, on May 4th, 1989, two nationalist leaders were killed on the same island by another separatist who felt they had betrayed the cause. Joseph Confavreux reports on a bloody past that still hangs over the region's politics and on the attempts at reconciliation and forgiveness.
During Emmanuel Macron’s first official visit to Britain last Thursday, when Brexit, defence cooperation and immigration policies topped the agenda, the French president also announced the loan to Britain of the famous Bayeux Tapestry, the nearly 70-metre long, 11th-century embroidered cloth of images and commentary that recounts the 1066 Norman invasion of England by William the Conqueror. Amid the many interpretations of Macron’s move, from simple goodwill gesture to tongue-in-cheek reminder of Britain’s continental roots, Joseph Confavreux turned to French university lecturer in mediaeval history Julien Théry for his analysis.
Three years ago on January 11th, 2015, a series of massive marches were held across France to show solidarity with the victims of the murderous terror attack on the Paris offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo four days earlier. Its theme, which went global, was “Je suis Charlie” - “I'm Charlie”. Last Saturday, January 6th, three groups organised a gathering in Paris under the title “Toujours Charlie” or “Still Charlie”. But as Joseph Confavreux reports, the event lacked both the caustic spirit of Charlie Hebdo and the collective spirit of the January 11th marches. Instead, he argues, it was more about the groups involved marking out a political and media niche for themselves.
In a recent book sociologist Louis Chauvel claims that, faced with a continued deepening of inequalities, French society is heading towards silent but nonetheless rapid and brutal collapse. The academic says that, rather like the aristocrats of Ancient Rome who did not see the fall of their empire coming, today's elites are blind to the fact that society as it stands is doomed. Joseph Confavreux examines the arguments in a book which at times feels like a memoir from beyond the grave.
Romain Pudal is a sociologist with the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and also, since 2002, a voluntary firefighter. Last month he published an ethnographic study of his fellow firefighters in which he opens up a world that, beyond the clichés and folklore, is largely little understood in both its composition and outlook. Joseph Confavreux argues that Pudal’s book, which he presents here, makes for edifying reading on the political and social tensions that grip contemporary France, and also on the fragmentation of its lower social classes.
Anthropologist Scott Atran, a research fellow with Oxford University who also teaches at University of Michigan and John Jay College in New York, is a leading expert in the study of the motivations of those who join jihadist ranks and the rise of the Islamic State group, and advises governments and international organizations on the issue. In this interview with Joseph Confavreux, he argues that the draw of IS is widely misunderstood, is not limited to disenfranchised communities, and that the organization can only be overcome by a different military, political and psychological approach by Western nations.
Was France attacked on November 13th because of what it is – or what it does? The debate over whether the country's perceived status as a beacon for individual and social freedom or its foreign policy in the Middle East was the main factor behind the attacks by Islamic State is dominating social media and private conversations as well as public discourse. However, Joseph Confavreux argues that rather than simply trying to put itself in the minds of the terrorists, French society should focus on the wider impact for the country and the political responses that are now needed.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the Paris terror attacks on Friday, November 13th. But why has the terror group made France its “principal target”, ahead of other states involved in the anti-IS coalition in Iraq and Syria? French journalist and author David Thomson, an expert on French jihadists, explains the background to Mediapart's Joseph Confavreux.
In the aftermath of the Paris terrorist attacks earlier this month, perpetrated in the name of Islam by three gunmen born and raised in France, there has been wide discussion in France about how hard-line Islamists succeed in enrolling a section of the country’s disenfranchised youths into their midst. Beyond the influence of extremist networks that operate in public places, notably a number of mosques, the role that prison plays in the recruitment of potential jihadists has been highlighted, notably by French Prime Minister Manuel Valls. Shortly after the attacks, he suggested that jailed radical Islamists may be grouped together in special quarters in prisons to limit their current opportunities of converting fellow prisoners to their cause. Mediapart’s Joseph Confavreux and Carine Fouteau sought out the opinion of Jean-Marie Delarue, who until July 2014 served for six years as France’s general inspector of prisons. In this interview he argues why he believes the proposition is misguided and potentially dangerous.
The shooting attacks in Paris last week claimed the lives of a total of 17 victims and ended with the deaths of the three gunmen. The outrages, perpetrated by Islamic extremists and which began with the massacre at the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine before the separate murders of two police officers and the executions of four hostages in a Jewish supermarket, have opened a vast societal debate in France. There have been comparisons made with the 9/11 attacks in the United States, questions raised about the true significance of the national unity displayed during last Sunday’s huge marches in defiance of terrorism, about the real extent of integration, and stigmatization, of the French Muslim population, and why the jihad increasingly lures some young French citizens. In this interview with Joseph Confavreux, Olivier Roy, a recognised expert in France and abroad on questions of Islam and religious fundamentalism, discusses these and related issues, and highlights the taboos that cloud an effective analysis of the events.
Florian Philippot, a vice-president of France’s far-right Front National (FN) party, goes to court on Monday to sue a gossip magazine after it published photos of him earlier this month that ‘outed’ him as gay. Just several days later, a founder of the French LGBT rights group GayLib, Sébastian Chenu, announced he had joined the FN as ‘cultural advisor’ to its president, Marine Le Pen, and would in the future stand as an election candidate for the party whose founder, Marine’s father Jean-Marie Le Pen, once notoriously described homosexuality as "a biological and social anomaly". Yet despite the FN’s homophobic history, and its recent opposition to the same-sex marriage law, Act Up Paris founder Didier Lestrade, author of a book entitled Why gays moved to the Right, says he believes a significant number of gays are increasingly attracted by the far-right. In this interview with Joseph Confavreux he explains why, argues that the FN leader is seeking “to try and enroll minority struggles in her fight against Islam”, and underlines that “people like Chenu and Philippot are not only symbols that can set an example, but also they arrive with networks”.
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Marine Vlahovic, retrouvée morte lundi dernier, avait 39 ans. Voix talentueuse d’Arte Radio et de France Culture, elle avait aussi signé plusieurs papiers pour Mediapart, notamment sur la Palestine. Son énergie manquera à Gaza et son rire à ses ami·es.
Jeudi 14 novembre, la Revue du Crieur, publie son 25ème et dernier numéro, après presque dix années d'existence consacrées à enquêter sur les idées et la culture. Le moment de compléter votre collection en lisant notamment un dossier exceptionnel consacré à la « Solitude de Gaza ».
Le podcast culturel de critique hebdomadaire de Mediapart reprend ses émissions ce dimanche 25 septembre, parce que le service public se désintéresse toujours plus des voix critiques et que la concentration des industries culturelles continue de vouloir les étouffer.
Le n° 19 de la « Revue du crieur » sort ce jeudi 14 octobre en librairies et Relay, et tente, à l’amorce d’une campagne présidentielle inquiétante, de déverrouiller un imaginaire national fossilisé. Il explore aussi les dérives du CNRS, la planète E-Girl, l’itinéraire du chercheur Bernard Rougier ou encore l’héritage de Simone de Beauvoir.
