8 - Community and civic culture: the Rotary Club in France and the United States

Summary

Most people in France think of Rotary Club members along the lines suggested by Guy Hocquenghem in his “Open Letter to Campus Radicals Who Have Crossed Over to the Rotary” (Hocquenghem 1986): they are seen as provincial notables who routinely parade their self-importance during overly indulgent dinners. According to their bye-laws, however, the members of Rotary International strive to serve a more laudable purpose, namely public service in support of humanitarian causes. While the activities of this organization are not well known in France, their deeds are recognized in the United States, where the group was founded at the beginning of the twentieth century.

My motivation to study the Rotary International in France stems from a desire to understand better why this organization loses so much of its validity on crossing the Atlantic. Upon reflection, it has become apparent that the perception of the group in France highlights prominent traits characteristic of the organization. Rotary International combines recruitment of members based on professional criteria of standing and competence with a public service goal, specifically the support of humanitarian causes like immunizing children in Africa or creating infrastructures in underdeveloped regions. Critics such as Hocquenghem challenge the ability of a group of people selected on the basis of professional competence and position to create civic solidarity; they suggest that although these people claim to help others, in fact, they are merely serving their own interests, which are the specific interests of the privileged class. To understand this type of tension, we might turn to Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot's De la justification.