La ironía de la solidaridad

Cultura, sociedad civil y discursos sobre el conflicto racial de El Ejido

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore the analytic potential of a neodurkheimian cultural
sociology in understanding how civil society reacts to a phenomenon of racial conflict (namely the
riots at El Ejido in February 2000). The paper claims that different narratives arising from civil
society share a common semiotic code structured on a dichotomized classification representing
inclusion and exclusion at the same time. This binary code is taken as the deep symbolic structure
of the civil society discourse. The analysis of competing narratives from the point of view of a
cultural sociology centered on the symbolic processes underlying civil religion shows what is called
the «irony of solidariry»: the production of feelings and loyalties on which social solidarity is
dependent cannot take place without a polarized classification of «we-ness» and «other-ness».
This representation provides a deep grammar of polarized categories which give shape to the
discourse of civil society on racial conflict on the basis of pure/impure, sacred/profane distinction.