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Lister, compter, enquêter. Ethnographie des pratiques de mise en visibilité des mort·es de la rue

Thomas Tari will present his work on raising the visibility of the homeless deaths. He will analyse how initiatives surrounding the mortality of people described as "homeless" attempt to convey a reality that is difficult to grasp.

Event, Research Seminar

Salle du Conseil, 13 rue de l'Université, 75007 Paris

Abstract

Since 2003, the Collectif Les Morts de la Rue (CMDR) has been committed to "the fight for dignity and recognition for people who have died on the streets" in France. Its actions include compiling an annual list that forms the basis for a tribute ceremony, conducting a census whose results are reported by many media outlets, and, since 2012, conducting a survey on the life trajectories and causes of death of people described as "homeless", which is the subject of an epidemiological report. These visibility-raising measures combine a political campaign for the right to housing, a stat-activist approach to compensate for the state's statistical shortcomings, a scientific study to describe little-known situations, and a moral imperative to fight for human dignity.

The purpose of this work is to examine how each of these actions - listing, counting, investigating - works to restore an empirically elusive reality: that of the isolation of vulnerable people on the streets, their daily invisibility and post-mortem invisibility. We put forward the hypothesis that, hampered by the nature of the facts they seek to document and denounce, these measures find their raison d'être more in their practices than in their results.

To support this assertion and study its consequences, we are drawing on material gathered over more than two years, one day a week, as a volunteer with the CMDR's "Dénombrer & Décrire" team, in a participatory ethnography of epidemiological investigation work and participant observation of multiple related events. In addition, we conducted a series of interviews in the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes region with social and medical workers who provide information to the CMDR.

Biography

Thomas Tari is a sociologist of knowledge at the medialab and head of the Centre d’exploration des controverses at Sciences Po, where he conducts educational experiments. He co-edited the collective work Controverses mode d’emploi (Presses de Sciences Po, 2021) and published with Clémence Seurat and Robin de Mourat Le Champ des possibles, une enquête collective à Sevran (369 éditions, 2023). He is currently conducting ethnographic research on practices for counting deaths related to humanitarian crises.

Practical information

This seminar will be held in person and in French, on Tuesday, February 3, 2026, from 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM, in Salle du Conseil, 13 rue de l'Université, 75007 Paris.

Registration is mandatory via this link.