Research Topics

This theme deals with the issues of art, culture and heritage as they relate to territories. The research carried out questions the socio-spatial dynamics and tensions associated with artistic, cultural and creative sites, actors and projects: urban mutations, social cohesion, gentrification, aestheticization of urban landscapes, territorial attractiveness, tourism, etc. It also addresses heritage processes in their spatial, environmental, social and political dimensions. They also address the spatial, environmental, social and political dimensions of the processes of heritage development, as well as geographical approaches to museums, commemorative and memorial phenomena in post-conflict situations, and cultural and heritage circulation. This research is carried out in a variety of geographical contexts (France, China, Palestine, Benin, etc.), at different levels of scale, and using a variety of methodologies (qualitative and quantitative surveys, action research, etc.).

Keywords: cultural circulations, interculturality, memories, crises and conflicts, war ruins, cultural and memorial tourism, museums, cultural and creative districts, creativity, cultural third places, cultural alternatives, policies (cultural, heritage, memorial), participation.

This theme explores the mutations of urban worlds, their practices and policies through the prism of social geography, combined with other approaches from urban and cultural geography and planning studies. The investigation focuses on housing, public space and the formation of city fragments, at a variety of spatial scales, in a variety of situations - central, suburban and peri-urban - and in a variety of study areas. The focus is on the social processes at work (socio-spatial specialization and segregation, cosmopolitanism, vulnerability, etc.) and the relationships to the city that are at play: modes of inhabitation, globalized, daily and residential mobility, informality, etc.

Keywords: public space, urban practices, urban policies and governance, spatial justice, micro-geographies, real estate market.

Our research focuses on different aspects of the environment. On the one hand, in the sense of the physical environment, through questions linked to natural hazards, but also in an approach to territories through the notions of vulnerability and resilience. Some of our work examines the ways in which contemporary urban societies respond to different types of risk, while others look at the relationship between cyclonic phenomena and global warming. On the other hand, the environment is approached as a sensitive medium, in an approach that questions the lived experience of urban territories. In this respect, the notion of ambiance is used to question contemporary planning policies for public spaces and mobility. In particular, our work examines the sensitive and physical effects of urban security policies, as well as the ambiences of European cities in a context marked by the terrorist attacks of recent years.

Keywords: environments, bodies, planning, resilience, vulnerability, security policies, floods, cyclones, crises, terrorism.