SPOL9211-1

Durée

30h Th

Nombre de crédits

	Master en sciences politiques, orientation générale, à finalité (en Science, Technologie et Société (STS))	5 crédits
	Master en sciences politiques, orientation générale	5 crédits
	Cours supplémentaires destinés aux étudiants d'échange - Erasmus (Faculté de Droit, de Sciences politique et de Criminologie)	5 crédits

Enseignant

François Thoreau

Langue(s) de l'unité d'enseignement

Langue anglaise

Organisation et évaluation

Enseignement au premier quadrimestre, examen en janvier

Horaire

Horaire en ligne

Unités d'enseignement prérequises et corequises

Les unités prérequises ou corequises sont présentées au sein de chaque programme

Contenus de l'unité d'enseignement

Le cours entend questionner des notions aussi vastes que celles "d'écologie" et de "politique", d'un point de vue interdisciplinaire et situé. Il est organisé à la façon d'un séminaire de recherche approfondi, exposant les étudiant-es à différentes démarches de recherche. Le cours entend aborder une diversité de situations empiriques et de "descriptions épaisses" de façon à multiplier les perspectives sur les notions d'écologie et de politique, s'attachant non pas à en fournir une définition universelle, mais plutôt à utiliser ces termes comme des ressources heuristiques pour explorer de telles situations empiriques. Pour ce faire, après quelques leçons introductives posant les jalons théorique et pratique des enseignements, les étudiant-es seront invités à réaliser une micro-ethnographie. Il leur sera demandé d'ouvrir grand leur "panier à provision" (Le Guin) et de revenir chargé d'observations, d'enregistrements (sous toutes formes), d'images, de notes, bref, de tout ce qui peut nourrir une réflexion collective et/ou faire appel aux sens et aux perceptions. Des sessions seront organisées où des chercheureuses invité-es viendront déplier leurs propres recherches et appareils conceptuels, invitant les étudiant-es à contribuer depuis leurs expériences spécifiques. Avec ce séminaire, les étudiant-es apprennent à s'engager dans une démarche de recherche, plus particulièrement dans le champ des humanités environnementales, avec ce que cela comporte de d'interdisciplinarité et de politique de l'enquête.

Acquis d'apprentissage (objectifs d'apprentissage) de l'unité d'enseignement

Understand and overcome structuring great dualisms (Nature / Culture, Economy / Society, etc);
Unfold the narrative dimension of ecology and politics, including their colonial dimension;
Develop empirical skills as about how to observe a situation and how to analytically relate to theoretical notions in an adequate way
Think creatively and bring in new content

Savoirs et compétences prérequis

None

Activités d'apprentissage prévues et méthodes d'enseignement

The course makes a stance towards "wild inquiry" and feeds it with invited lectures. When there is a reading on the list, it is mandatory that all students have read it carefully in advance. In each of the texts, students are invited to locate and define what is, or could be, potential definitions of what "ecology" means, as well as to provide tentative narratives about how "politics" are being played out and structured in the situation described by the text.

What kind of « ecology » is at stake?

Which entities (human or non-human) do play a role in the situation? It could be e.g. a fictional entity (a party, a people, a social class...), inhabitants from a village, a professional category (scientists, policy-makers...), a power plant, an industriel infrastructure, a swamp, a landscape, etc. How does the situation organize the relationships between these entities? What are their respective dependencies (e.g. I need oil and you need food, let's make a food for oil program together)? Are there learning processes occurring amongst those entities? Do they engage into symbiosis processes?

What kind of « politics » are at play ?

How then to qualify the relationships between all the entities listed and located above? Are they friends or enemies to each other? How do they relate? Are they competing for scarce resources or cooperating for exchanging values? What are the threats they collectively face? Is there a particular vulnerability to the situation and how does it affect the bindings between all these entities? In short, what is the direction of these complex knots of relationships. Considering that stability and equilibrium are not really options in any ecology, then there must be movement. Where to?
Students are much encouraged to bring in the course their own materials to discuss with, be it a fiction, a documentary, poetry, novels, short stories, field observations, be it relevant associative or militant experience, student jobs (e.g. bicycling for takeaway or deliveroo), from which they can derive observations, questions, ecological (and thus political) and political (and thus ecological) problem.

Mode d'enseignement (présentiel, à distance, hybride)

Cours donné exclusivement en présentiel

Explications complémentaires:

For this course being present - in all the meanings of the term (physically, intelectually, enthusiastically...) - is an important endavour.

Lectures recommandées ou obligatoires et notes de cours

Indicative bibliography
Cronon W. (1992), "A Place for Stories: Nature, History, and Narrative", The Journal of American History, 78(4), pp. 1347-1376.
Gorz A. (1992), "L'écologie politique entre expertocratie et autolimitation", Actuel Marx, n°12 (also in « Ecologica », Paris : Galilée, 2008).
Haraway D. (1988), "Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective", Feminist Studies, 14(3), pp. 575-599.
Illich I. (1973), Tools for conviviality, Harper & Row.
Latour Bruno, Politics of Nature. How to bring the sciences into democracy, Harvard University Press: Introduction.
Le Guin (1989), "The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction", in Dancing at the Edge of the World, Grove Press.
Tsing A (2018), The Mushroom at the End of the World. On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins, Princeton University Press.

Modalités d'évaluation et critères

Examen(s) en session

Toutes sessions confondues

- En présentiel

évaluation orale

Explications complémentaires:

There will be an oral examination where the student presents its materials and hypothesis in front of the group, which is followed by a collective discussion.

Stage(s)

Remarques organisationnelles et modifications principales apportées au cours

Langage
The course is held in English. However, each student is invited to speak in the language he/she/they is more comfortable with.
Courses
Tuesday, Sept. 21st, from 3 to 5 pm, Séminaire 7 (B31)
Tuesday, Sept. 28st, from 3 to 5 pm, Séminaire 7(B31): introduction to my research and the politics of inquiry, politics of Nature (ex cathedra lesson)
Tuesday, Oct. 5th, from 3 to 5 pm, Séminaire 7 (B31): fieldwork activities (no class in situ)
Tuesday, Oct. 12st, from 3 to 5 pm, Séminaire 7 (B31): fieldwork activities (no class in situ)
Tuesday, Oct. 19th, from 3 to 5 pm, Séminaire 7 (B31): first sharing of the fieldwork results (informal)
Tuesday, Oct. 26st, from 3 to 5 pm, Séminaire 7 (B31): discussions over the introduction of Politics of Nature (Bruno Latour)
Tuesday, Nov. 2nd, from 3 to 5 pm, Séminaire 7 (B31): complement fieldworks (no class in situ)
Tuesday, Nov. 9th, from 3 to 5 pm, Séminaire 7(B31): material sharing session
Tuesday, Nov. 16th, from 3 to 5 pm, Séminaire 7(B31): Guest lecture Kim Hendrickx
Tuesday, Nov. 23rd, from 3 to 5 pm, Séminaire 7(B31): Guest lecture Antonina Ferrante
Tuesday, Nov. 30th, from 3 to 5 pm, Séminaire 7(B31): Guest lecture Adam Searle
Tuesday, Dec 7th, from 3 to 5 pm, Séminaire 7(B31): Guest lecture Daniele Valisena
Tuesday, Dec. 15th, from 3 to 5 pm, Séminaire 7(B31): Open Q/A session

Ecology and Politics