Theme 4: "Socio-spatial dynamics and political mobilisation".
Hosted by Cesare Mattina
This area is at the crossroads of several fields of study that are usually compartmentalised. On the one hand, there is the analysis of the various types of relationship between social groups in the same area, which are characterised by distinct socio-economic, professional and residential properties, and whose coexistence produces additional specifications for the area and rearrangements of the differences between these spatially situated social groups. Secondly, the study of transactions between the specialised field of politics and the many actors in 'civil society' who claim a position as interlocutors, intermediaries or spokespersons for collective concerns.
By bringing these two fields of study together, the aim is to examine how composite groups of players, both public and private, interact to discuss, challenge or (re)negotiate interventions or proposed interventions by the public authorities in the area.
Axis members
From a methodological point of view, this theme takes a constructivist approach.
Refusing to adopt a naturalistic approach, the members of the team endeavour to reconstruct the processes through which the actors studied endeavour to convince their contemporaries of the importance of certain 'issues', 'public problems', 'disturbances', 'risks' or 'threats'. In these localised analyses of social phenomena, the question of scales (spatial and temporal) is also of great importance, both in terms of observation by the researchers and the actors who use them to situate themselves in relation to each other. The research focuses on two main themes:
Keywords: Mobilisation, controversy, territories, environment, ecological transition, living environment, expertise, professionalisation, social groups
Axis news
Axis 4 seminar: review of the year and preparations for 2026-2027
Area 4 - Progress workshop: Elena Dinubila and Hélène Jeanmougin
Area 4 - Progress workshop: Cesare Mattina, «Publishing an HDR. Presentation of ideas and main results».»
Urban studies« cross-cutting theme, »Atelier Marseille 4-5« initiative: Francesca Ru, »Le marché de la Plaine: réappropriation et bouleversements d'un espace rénové« (presentation of results)
Axis 4 & EHESS Marseille seminar: "Working with Jean-Claude Chamboredon".
Axis 4 seminar: Emmanuel Martinais, "La fabrique administrative des lois et règlements" (The administrative manufacture of laws and regulations)
Publications
Benoît Luczak and Christophe Traïni, contributions to the «Dictionnaire d'écologie politique» (Presses de Sciences Po, 2025)
Jean Lagane, Natures Sciences Sociétés magazine: "Parc naturel urbain à Aix-en-Provence. The challenges facing public developers in the face of the expectations of an ordinary urban environmental movement".
Article by Jessy Bailly: "Reform nebula and the institutionalisation of democratic criticism in the EU".
Article by Jessy Bailly: "The politics of public data and numbers in activism: attitudes towards public numbers by citizen debt audit groups in Belgium, France and Spain".
Book chapter, Christophe Traïni: "Convenir, mesurer, juger. Carbon accounting and the sociology of quantification".
Axis events archive
Axis 4 seminar: Jérôme Dubois, «Renewable energies in France - Analysis of an impeded planning process».»
Friday 6 December 2024 | 2pm | MMSH (room A154) As part of Axe 4, Jérôme Dubois, professor of urban planning and development at the Faculty of Law and Political Science, will...
Seminar Area 4: Socio-spatial dynamics and political mobilisation / Urban studies cross-cutting area
Thursday 21 November 2024 | 10am-12pm | EPS (room 202) In collaboration with the Urban Studies cross-cutting theme, MESOPOLHIS theme 4 will welcome Miguel A. Martínez, professor of urban sociology at the...
Axis 4 seminar Socio-spatial dynamics and political mobilisation
Friday 5 April, 13h30-16h, MMSH, Salle de réunion For this next Axis 4 seminar, Benoît LUCZAK (PhD student, MESOPOLHIS) will present: «L'analyse du mouvement climat en France et au...
Axis 4 seminar Socio-spatial dynamics and political mobilisation Invited speakers: Sophie Dubuisson-Quellier (DR CNRS, Dir. CSO); Stéphanie Dechezelles (PU sociology Univ. de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour)
Sophie Dubuisson-Quellier (DR CNRS, Dir. CSO) will be presenting her book Mobilisations environnementales (Co-dir.) (PUF/Vie des idées 2023) And Stéphanie Dechezelles, PU sociologie Univ. de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour will be...
Axis 4 seminar Socio-spatial dynamics and political mobilisation
Guest: François-Mathieu Poupeau (Director of Research at CNRS and Professor at Ecole des Ponts ParisTech)
Guest: François-Mathieu Poupeau (Director of Research at the CNRS and Professor at the Ecole des Ponts ParisTech) Presentation of his book «L'État en quête d'une stratégie énergie-climat» (2023, Presses des Mines de...
Axis 4 seminar Socio-spatial dynamics and political mobilisationGuest: Thomas Reverdy, PU Sociologie industrielle, INP, PACTE, Univ. de Grenoble
Guest: Thomas Reverdy, PU sociologie industrielle, INP, PACTE, Univ. de Grenoble Theme: «The contribution of economic sociology to our understanding of transformations and crises in the...
Axis 4 seminar Socio-spatial dynamics and political mobilisation
Guest: Christelle Gramaglia (INRAE, Montpellier)
Guest: Christelle Gramaglia (INRAE, Montpellier) will present her book «Habiter la pollution. Expériences et métrologies citoyennes de la contamination». «Rethinking pollution on the basis of citizen experiences and metrologies of...
Axis 4 seminar Socio-spatial dynamics and political mobilisation
HyFlex: shaping the transition to hydrogen in local and regional authorities... In this third session, Maurice Olive, Pierre Fournier and Cesare Mattina (MESOPOLHIS) will present the HyFlex project «Shaping the transition...
Axis 4 seminar
Cecilia PASINI (Italian doctoral student, visiting researcher at Mesopolhis)
«Fossil territories between industrial past, uncertain present and deindustrialisation future»
A case study of the Eni refinery at Sannazzaro de' Burgondi (Lombardy)
Axis 4 seminar
The test of discrimination
Survey in working-class neighbourhoods
Presentation of the book published by PUF in 2021.