The Transformations of Social Classes Seized by Housing Illegalities. The Case of the District of Amiens Between 1900 and 1915

This article examines housing illegalisms in the Amiens district between 1900 and 1915, employing a methodology that combines quantitative analysis of Civil Court summary proceedings archives with a microhistorical approach. It investigates practices such as illegal occupations, clandestine removals, and rent defaults, and proposes a typology of these phenomena. The article argues that these practices reflect a moral economy, rooted in the defense of autonomy ensured by the possession of assets such as land, housing, or tools of labor. These assets, both material and symbolic, lie at the core of the resistance mounted by artisans, shopkeepers, and farmers against the forces of economic concentration and proletarianization. The forms of housing illegalism practiced shed light on the relationship individuals have with property but also their social position and the broader transformations affecting their social groups. While anarchists politicized these practices by critiquing private property and capitalism, the illegalisms themselves remained deeply embedded in the everyday resistances of social groups undergoing change. Ultimately, the study of housing illegalisms sheds light on the recomposition of social classes through their evolving relationship to property.