Doctoral Student Conference 2023 of ASRDLF
La Nature au défi de la Ville : Enjeux de bien-être et de cohésion sociale
(Nature facing the challenge of the City: Issues of well-being and social cohesion)
26-27 January 2023, University of Tours, France

The French Speaking Section (ASRDLF) of ERSA is happy to annouce the Doctoral Students Annual Conference 2023. This year’s edition will be organised by l’UMR7324 CITERES (Équipe DATE), CNRS-Université de Tours (University of Tours) & the French Speaking of ERSA (ASRDLF).

The ASRDLF Doctoral Studies are aimed at doctoral students and researchers working on territorial and regional issues in the human and social sciences (planning, economics, urban planning, geography, management, history, law, political science, sociology, etc).

They take place in the form of thematic or methodological workshops, to which are added plenary conferences and roundtables. Beyond all the general and recurring themes addressed in ASRDLF’s research, theses and scientific events, which will be covered in the thematic sessions dedicated to the presentations of doctoral students, in 2023 the theme highlighted in the plenary sessions is entitled “Nature facing the challenge of the City: Issues of well-being and social cohesion”.

As usual, in 2023 all the general and recurring themes addressed in the research, theses and scientific events of the ASRDLF will be covered during the Doctoral. Consequently, whatever their thesis subject, all doctoral students will be able to present their work, without exception.

However, a theme will be highlighted, considered crucial today by the organizing laboratory, through targeted interventions. It is about the place of nature and the ecological and environmental transition in cities, focusing more particularly on issues of social justice and individual and collective well-being.

The announced and already obvious crises linked to climate change, the depletion of natural resources and the erosion of biodiversity call for a radical renewal of urban planning guidelines and practices; towards what some call “soft planning”, while others advocate a return to more proactive and more “organizing” public action approaches. In any event, urban development models based on cheap abundance are being deeply challenged. Cities, in their form and functioning, appear both as an important cause of these crises but also as the most exposed to their consequences. The traditional development models, which remain dominant, appear obsolete today, but it is the whole functioning of the city that is called into question. In the search for innovations (of all kinds, including so-called “social” ones) to try to initiate the necessary changes and adaptations, disadvantaged or fragile populations risk being once again forgotten by the transitions and adaptations undertaken. While they are the most frugal, these populations are also those who have the least material, cognitive and political resources to adapt. The paradox then appears, or the injustice, that the populations least responsible for the environmental crisis are those who will have to make the most efforts to adapt. In addition, the examination of urban renaturation actions (such as, for example, the development of river banks and waterfronts) shows that in certain cases “virtuous” development operations from an environmental point of view can lead to reinforce the processes of urban gentrification and segregation…

Key dates
Call for abstracts deadline: 15 November , 2022
Response to authors: 10 December, 2022
Methods of submission: see on the event site, section “Deposer une communication”

Download call for abstracts

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