Ongoing Projects

Dates: 2024 - 2027

This research focuses on the teaching of geography in English in secondary schools as part of the NLD (non-languistic discipline). It aims to support and develop the foreign language skills of NLD geography teachers, and to question the didactic practices implemented by teachers.
Using didactic tools specific to each discipline, class observations (filmed), teaching experiments and reflective discussions with teachers, the project will examine the complementarity and specific features of NLD and modern foreign language teaching, as well as the integrated construction of disciplinary knowledge through the language practices developed.

Participation in the GEOLANG+ project by Amélie Deschamps (CY PLACES) and Nassima Hakimi (PhD student at UMR PACTE - Université Grenoble Alpes, associated with CY PLACES).
Partners: research units (CREA, Nanterre; LAVUE, Nanterre; PLACES, Cergy) and secondary schools (Lycée Paul Langevin, Suresnes (92), Lycée Guy de Maupassant, Colombes (92), Collège Jean Luçat, Achères (78), collège Paul Eluard, Nanterre (92))

INSPE de Versailles funding for one year (July 2023-July 2024) and integration into the Lieux d'Education Associés (LéA) network of the Institut français de l'éducation (IFE) for 3 years (2024-2027).

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Dates: 2024 - 2028

In the process of manufacturing living spaces, a predominant top-down approach, from the start of the project through to delivery to users, has often led to post-construction problems that are costly to resolve. These problems can include areas overexposed to noise, a lack of cool, shaded spaces, and various other challenges that affect quality of life. This underlines the importance of exploring lived spaces through ambiences in the missing “bottom-up” flow.
In addition, ambience studies, which have evolved since the 1980s, offer a more comprehensive understanding than earlier post-project assessments, including the post-occupancy evaluations that emerged in the 1960s. They encompass various trends, such as the phenomenological approach, artistic works that use ambience as a creative medium, environmental psychology, ambience engineering and the architectural achievements of figures such as Peter Zumthor. These trends make a significant contribution to our understanding of architectural and urban ambiences.
This COST Action aims to bring together diverse perspectives and methodologies to understand, exchange and harmonize concepts and definitions, by collecting records and defining cooperation objectives, harmonizing technical language and charting future prospects for architectural and urban ambiences in European cities and beyond. It focuses on the holistic integration of the “bottom-up” approach, including sensitive experiences of ambiences, into the design, construction and management of living spaces. By focusing on the sensory dimension of ambiences, it aims to highlight solutions that prioritize human experience in urban planning. A collaborative and interdisciplinary approach is used to positively influence architectural and urban policies and practices in Europe and worldwide.

COST project European Cooperation in Science & Technology (CA 23145) funded by the European Union

Lead partners: Mohammed Boubezari, Universidade Lusofona de Lisboa (Action Chair) and Damien Masson, CY PLACES (Action Vice Chair)

Find out more on the COST website

Dates: 2024 - 2025 (18 months)

The aim of this participatory research is to observe the way in which the arts and culture (all disciplines and methods combined) are mobilised by various players in their commitments (activism, citizen mobilisation, etc.); and conversely, how the involvement of residents in participatory cultural projects can fuel forms of commitment at different levels.
The first aim is to develop an analysis of the discourse produced by different players (cultural institutions, activist circles, artists, etc.) on the link between culture and commitment in the city. Based on a survey carried out in 5 areas identified by the Banlieues Capitales association, the aim is then to observe the practices of various players involved in projects linking art, culture and community involvement. These surveys will provide food for thought with a view to the prefiguration of an observatory of forms of civic engagement and participation through culture, jointly developed by the consortium as a whole and the players in the research fields. This ‘critical’, ‘participatory’ and ‘initiative-activating’ observatory will be conceived as a space that makes visible a body of significant experiences that are shared, analysed and discussed, with the dual aim of producing critical knowledge and operational know-how. E.C.C.E2 (project continued) will be responsible for setting up, feeding and monitoring this observatory on a European scale.

Research project funded by the ANR (French National Research Agency), as part of the call for projects ‘Science with and for society - Participatory research’.

The project is being carried out in collaboration by the PLACES laboratory and the Banlieues Capitales association, under the scientific direction of Anne Hertzog (CY PLACES), with the collaboration of Pablo Arango (research engineer, CY PLACES).

Dates: 2024 - 2025 (18 months)

This project will test a portfolio of three co-developed heritage-sensitive forest conservation approaches to identify effective mechanisms that can help support the critical role of indigenous peoples in mitigating climate change in the tropics.

Based on five years of ethnographic engagement with four communities in the Chiang Mai highlands of northern Thailand, we discovered how pervasive practices of everyday environmental heritage help indigenous communities connect to and safeguard their natural space. However, these practices are under threat from state-imposed approaches to conservation and development.

The pilot policies we have jointly developed aim to create a more supportive environment for indigenous peoples' everyday environmental heritage practices. We will test and evaluate the short-term impact of labels of origin for highland products (reducing market pressures that prevent engagement with forests), behavioural tools to encourage community forest management (for example, celebrating practices such as clearing firebreaks and ordaining trees), and the promotion of new heritage practices among indigenous youth.
The main objective of this project is to stimulate a more favourable environment for indigenous peoples to realise their daily environmental heritage. To achieve this, we will test a portfolio of three linked and co-produced pilot projects in Chiang Mai province, northern Thailand.

Main objectives:

• Pilot three heritage-sensitive climate change mitigation approaches to demonstrate inclusive policy design that promotes indigenous peoples' environmental heritage.
• Develop a conceptual and methodological framework that takes into account indigenous environmental heritage and conservation practices.

Secondary objective:

• To provide the Thai government with concrete proposals for inclusive national climate change mitigation policies.

Partner universities: Chiang Mai University, Thailand (director), University of Oxford, United Kingdom, University of Warwick, United Kingdom.

Scientific director: Marco Haenssgen, Chiang Mai University (Thailand)

Participation of Élizabeth Auclair (CY PLACES) and Anne Hertzog (CY PLACES)

Funding: The British Academy, ISPF ODA Challenge-Oriented Research Grants

Dates: 2024 - 2025 (12 months)

The research, carried out in close collaboration with the Observatoire des Politiques Culturelles (OPC) and the social landlord ‘Toit et Joie - Poste Habitat’, aims to study the artistic and cultural initiatives (artists' residencies, creative projects with residents, etc.) supported by the latter in 6 social housing residences in the Île-de-France region. Supported by the landlord's cultural department, these initiatives take place in the residences throughout the year - over a period of at least 6 months and up to 2 years - with professional companies and artists, cultural structures and local residents - the participative dimension being a key aspect of the projects.
At a time when the State and other public authorities are increasingly seeking to structure their cooperation with social housing operators in the field of culture (as demonstrated by the framework agreement between the DRAC Île-de-France and social landlords in the Ile-de-France region), the research aims, on the one hand, to gain a better understanding of the political-institutional dimension of Poste Habitat's cultural intervention and, on the other, to grasp the appropriation of the projects by the residents. These artistic projects, which involve a wide range of players (residents, cultural institutions, artists, associations, landlords, etc.) will also be studied in terms of their socio-spatial effects at different scales.

Financing : Toit et Joie - Poste Habitat, DRAC Île de France

Scientific lead: Anne Hertzog (CY PLACES), Vincent Guillon (Observatoire des Politiques Culturelles)

Research team: Camila Van Diest (OPC, PLACES laboratory), Natacha Gourland (MCF University of Evry, associated with CY PLACES), Samuel Périgois (OPC)

Dates : 2024 - 2025

The current ecological crisis is forcing radical changes in all spheres of society. The stakes are particularly high in the arts and culture sector, and especially in contemporary music, where the dominant logic of competition (between artists, between cultural venues, between territories), the race for ‘more and more’ (in terms of attractiveness, audience size, etc.) and the over-consumption of resources (linked to travel, digital use, etc.) is contradictory to environmental issues. While the cultural sector is contributing to the worsening of the ecological crisis, it can also be part of the solution, in particular through the ability of the arts to influence the collective imagination. That's why this project takes a conceptual and operational look at ways of amplifying the ecological transition (or even mutation) in the arts and culture, and more specifically in the contemporary music sector.

Research project funded by the ANR (French National Research Agency), as part of the call for projects ‘Science with and for society - Participatory research’.

The project is being carried out in collaboration by the PLACES laboratory and the Trempo cultural association, under the scientific direction of Basile Michel (CY PLACES).

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Dates : 2024 - 2026

Spiritual Landscapes (SL) and Sacred Forests (SF) are places spread around the world that are of particular importance to the societies associated with them. SLs and SFs are often located in some of the world's richest biodiversity hotspots and are therefore of great conservation value. The socio-ecological systems (SES) of SFs generate endogenous coping strategies rooted in traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). These strategies enable indigenous communities and groups to cope effectively with multiple stresses in different areas (water, health, crops, energy, food, housing). Drawing on Alessandra Manzini's doctoral research carried out in the periphery of the Guinean forest hotspot in Basse Casamance (Senegal), SPIRAL will develop a transdisciplinary and comparative approach to analyse a variety of FS case studies in different geographical contexts. Thanks to ad hoc training in quantitative approaches and modelling, the project will compare and analyse data already collected (Senegal) with information extracted from the available literature and online databases (eHRAF World Cultures, D-Place). SPIRAL aims to improve our understanding of traditional management practices for Spiritual Landscapes (SL) and Sacred Forests (SF) at the global scale, paving the way for a more sustainable future for these key elements of the cultural and biological landscape in many regions of our planet. 

Funding: MSCA Cofund EUTOPIA SIF Université
Partners: CY Cergy Paris Université (PLACES laboratory), University Pompeu Fabra (CASEs group)

Coordinator: Alessandra Manzini (CY PLACES)

Dates : 2022 - 2025

The research is looking at incivilities in public spaces. The aims of this project are twofold: to study the impact of refugee support groups on the atmosphere of public spaces; and to study the impact of activism and solidarity on the perception of public spaces.
This research adopts the notion of ambiences to understand the intersections between urban public space, (in)civility and the formation of moral communities. Although most recent research on incivility has approached it from a legal and criminological perspective, it is necessary to broaden our definition of ‘incivility’ to take account of incivilities and injustices perpetrated by institutions as well as individuals. By bringing together the French and English literature on ambiences with research on incivility, the project proposes an interdisciplinary investigation into how a policy of care and solidarity impacts the well-being and inclusion of urban populations vulnerable to institutional incivility and neglect. Using ethnographic research methods, the project focuses on refugee support and outreach groups to understand how they use urban spaces, practice care and try to create atmospheres that promote well-being and inclusion.

Funding: Marie Skłodowska-Curie COFUND - EUTOPIA-SIF

Carrier: Carrie Benjamin (CY PLACES)