Research overview
Scientific project
Scientific Project
Humanity is currently facing the greatest environmental crisis it has ever encountered. This crisis manifests itself through climate change, biodiversity loss, resource scarcity, waste accumulation, and more. These issues, first identified by scientists, are now widely recognized by policymakers and the general public. They are increasingly mentioned in political discourse, where promises are often made to implement technical solutions to protect the environment. Yet, it is clear that the implementation of such solutions remains far too slow and insufficiently widespread. At the global scale, the environmental crisis is not abating but rather continuing to intensify.
It has become increasingly evident that technical solutions alone will not be sufficient to resolve the current environmental crisis, and that a deeper rethinking of the functioning of our societies is required. Developing mitigation and adaptation strategies to face this crisis requires analyzing the evolving relationship between humans and their environment, by drawing simultaneously on the Social Sciences and the Natural Sciences. This makes the research conducted at LIVE particularly relevant for designing such strategies.
Over the course of the next five-year contract, the laboratory intends to establish a collective dynamic centered around two main directions:
Strengthening existing interdisciplinary links within the laboratory to study the challenges of the current environmental crisis. This includes, in particular, issues related to emerging water and energy shortages, inequalities generated by the effects of the crisis as well as by the implementation of adaptation or mitigation measures, and the barriers to implementing such measures and securing their acceptance by the public and decision-makers.
Using the reconstruction of past human societies and their interactions with the environment to better assess today’s environmental challenges and to enhance their understanding among the public and decision-makers.
These two main directions will be supported by the research questions explored within the laboratory’s six workshops.
Contact:Alain Clappier
Recherche groups
Our researches are structured into five research groups: