Hélène Hatzfeld

Hélène Hatzfeld is a French political scientist. She has published books on topics including social science methodology, the evolution of social work, innovations in the city of Louviers from the 1960s through the 1980s, and the political history of leftist parties and social movements in the 1970s.

Hatzfeld's research has been cited, or she has been interviewed, in media outlets including France Culture, France Inter, Paris-Normandie (Fr).

Career Hatzfeld is from Lyon. She attended Sciences Po, where she graduated with a doctorate in political science in 1987. Her thesis was entitled Les relations entre le Parti socialiste, la CFDT et le mouvement social de 1971 à 1981, and was supervised by Georges Lavau (Fr). In 2000, Hatzfeld and Jackie Spiegelstein published a book on observational methodology in social sciences, called Méthodologie de l'observation sociale.

Hatzfeld has focused much of her research on the political history of the 1970s, especially conceptions of democracy and politics as expressed by leftist parties, political associations, and new social movements. She analysed under-discussed political lessons of social movements in the 1970s in the 2005 book Faire de la politique autrement. Les expériences inachevées des années 1970, and published a 2018 book on innovative developments in Louviers during the period from 1965 to 1983.

Selected works Construire de nouvelles légitimités en travail social, Éditions Dunod (Fr) (1998) Méthodologie de l'observation sociale, Éditions Dunod, with Jackie Spiegelstein (2000) Banlieues, villes de demain: Vaulx-en-Velin au-delà de l'image, Éditions du CERTU (2000) Faire de la politique autrement. Les expériences inachevées des années 1970, Presses Universitaires de Rennes (2005) Les légitimités ordinaires: au nom de quoi devrions-nous nous taire?, Paris, L'Harmattan (2011) La politique à la ville. Inventions citoyennes à Louviers (1965-1983), Presses Universitaires de Rennes (2018)