The Marseillologie Permanent Seminar is intended as a forum for reflection, exchange and sharing of current and future social science work on Marseilles and its metropolitan area. Its starting point is the proliferation of work by statutory researchers, doctoral students, post-doctoral students, Masters students and freelance sociologists in various social science disciplines (sociology, geography, urban planning, anthropology, history, political science, communication, etc.) on social transitions and transformations in Marseille and its metropolitan area.) on the social and urban transitions and transformations of Marseille and its metropolitan area: gentrification and the cohabitation of different populations in the city, the reshaping of social groups and transformations in urban government modes; political commitments and mobilisations; transitions in transport and mobility; the role of land and property companies in urban government; changes in shops and commercial enterprises in the city; environmental issues; educational and school policies, etc. These works and their authors - whether from the metropolitan area or elsewhere - sometimes struggle to be known and recognised, and they are not often interconnected. The role of this seminar would therefore be to fill these gaps, to open up a permanent space for presentation and debate.

Talking about "Marseillesology" is a provocative way of questioning the relevance of the "urban laboratory" that this city would be at the crossroads between the ordinary and/or specific nature of this research field. It is a way not only of presenting the progress and results of research carried out in Marseille, but also of encouraging comparative reflection on the social and urban transitions taking place in other French and European metropolises. In most of the thematic seminars, research on other cities and metropolises will be cross-referenced with research on Marseille.

The purpose of the Marseillologie Permanent Seminar is to share ongoing research on urban and social phenomena between researchers of different levels and disciplines, for the benefit not only of academics, but also of elected representatives and civil servants, associations and the general public.

Chaperoned by the Observatoire des Villes en Transitions en Région Sud of the Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences de l'Homme, and organised by the Centre Méditerranéen de Sociologie, science politique et Histoire (MESOPOLHIS) of Aix-Marseille University (CNRS-science po), the Permanent Seminar will operate on a travelling basis between Aix-en-Provence and Marseille. It proposes to start in the winter of 2022 (November-December) and to have, in its first year of operation, four sessions organised around a half-day thematic seminar lasting 3 hours.