Section: Dissemination

Popularization

Conferences “Understanding and Acting” :

Saving Civilization is not a spectator sport

Lester Brown

Following a dynamics of exponential growth in a finite world, humanity today faces a number of unprecedented and tightly interlinked challenges. With a growing number of environmental limits being largely and irreversibly exceeded (GHG concentrations in the atmosphere, biodiversity loss, soil erosion, freshwater shortages...), social, economic, geopolitical, humanitarian (etc.) consequences are becoming more urgent than ever to address, while the threat of an uncontrolled global collapse is now more than a prospect. It is urgent to initiate deep, structural, socioeconomic changes on virtually all aspects of our increasingly global societies (economics, industrial and agricultural production, consumption, education, all requiring major new local and global policies).

In view of these facts, the STEEP research team has initiated in 2016 a series of conferences-debates entitled “Understanding & Acting” (“Comprendre et agir”) that examines these issues in order to help researchers and citizens to increase their awareness of the various issues at stake in order to initiate relevant individual and collective actions. From now on, the scientific community at large must realize that its duty also lies in helping citizens to better understand these issues. If the fraction of people in society whose privilege is to be paid to think about society's problems do not seize this opportunity in the critical times we face, who will? Researchers must become more involved in the search of socioeconomic alternatives and help citizens to implement them. The interactions between researchers and citizens must also to be reinvented.

The presentations of this series of conferences typically last between 30 to 45 minutes; they are followed by a 45 minute public debate with the audience. The presentations are captured on video and then made directly accessible on the YouTube Channel “Comprendre et Agir”. At the end of 2017 the YouTube channel reached almost 45,000 views with a rate of integral viewings re¬maining at above 25%.

Examples of conferences given in 2016-2017:

• “Why and how to recognize money as a common good?” by Jean-Michel Servet, Graduate institute of international and development studies (IHEID) at Genève.

• “What alternative to the crisis of representation?” by Loic Blondiaux, University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne.

• “Reinventing agriculture and food in the 21st century?” by Gilles Billen, CNRS.

• “Can the commons movement re-activate democracy? by Christian Laval, University of Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense.

• “Limiting climate change: Why do we not do it?” by Denis Dupré, University of Grenoble Alpes.

• “Understanding society collapses. What future for ours? ” by Emmanuel Prados, Inria.

• “Environment, economy, collapse: squaring the circle?” by Pierre-Yves Longaretti, CNRS.

Link to the web page of the series [program, abstracts, dates, complements etc.]:

https://team.inria.fr/steep/les-conferences-debats-comprendre-et-agir/

Link to the YouTube channel :

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJbcXCcOA63M8VMysAbmt_A

Other popularization activities :

• Emmanuel Prados was guest speaker at

  • the public debate "defying disaster" that held at Grenoble City Hall., Grenoble, France, 13 December 2018. Organizers: City of Grenoble. “Climat, défier la catastrophe : vers un nouvel humanisme”

    http://www.grenoble.fr/uploads/Externe/a1/757_069_Conference-Climat-defier-la-catastrophe-vers-un-nouvel-humanisme.pdf

    Video of the conference on YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfvFHx0kYa0

  • the exchange day on travel modelling in Grenoble “”, Grenoble, France, 5 October 2018. Organizers: Agence d'urbanisme de Grenoble.

  • the Controversation entitled “Digital technology in the face of environmental impasse: an exit door or a way forward?”, Aix en Provence, France, 17th of February 2018. Organizers: association “Tous Chercheurs” in collaboration with the students of the School of Journalism and Communication of Aix-Marseille ; Amina Mokrane.

  • the Opening Conference at the Alterre Day «Voyages en transitions » : “De l'urgence de tout changer face à l'effondrement qui vient”, Dijon, France, March 21th 2018. Organizers: Alterre Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (Agence régionale pour l’environnement et le développement soutenable) ; Fabienne Lapiche-Jaouen.

    https://www.alterrebourgognefranchecomte.org/c/agenda/10604/journee-alterre-sur-le-theme-des-transitions?

• Emmanuel Prados participated Fictionnalisation de controverse in the research-action project FORCCAST. 22 April, 2018, Paris.

• Emmanuel Prados gave a conference at STMicroelectronics Grenoble : `Collapse: understanding and accepting the game over of our modern society”, Grenoble, France, March 8 2018. Organizers: Philippe Vincent and Violaine Pasini.