Session I.
Construction of the Territorial Sciences.
Scientific and Educational Challenges Involved in North-South and South-South Dialogue
Co-chairs: Mouftaou AMADOU SANNI (Université de Parakou, Bénin) & Emmanuel BONNET (PRODIG / IRD)
The “territorial sciences” have been a dynamic multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research field for about twenty years now, and it is still unclear whether they will remain a meta-discipline or whether they will eventually develop into an independent field of inquiry (Couclelis, 2011). There have been several attempts over the past few years to establish this field of research in various countries in the Global North (Magnaghi, 2014; Beckouche et al., 2012; Massicotte, 2011), although its proponents profess to have global ambitions. This raises the question of whether the territorial sciences are destined to remain a phenomenon confined to a particular period in the history of science in a particular region of the world.
The session will address this question in the context of North-South, but also South-South dialogue. The focus will be on the experiences of researchers or academics from different disciplines in the territorial sciences who are involved in working on similar issues, but in areas that are widely divergent, both in terms of geographical location and levels of development (Amadou Sanni et al., 2009).
Possible topics for papers include:
- Scientific challenges related to comparative approaches across territories. For example: Is it possible and useful to draw comparisons between road accidents in West Africa (Nikiema et al., 2017; Bonnet, 2015)? Are family planning issues the same at the beginning and the end of a demographic transition (Amadou Sanni, 2015; 2011)?
- The pedagogical challenges involved in the co-construction of educational content: Training and experience transfer between countries in the Global North and the Global South are often asymmetrical and raise numerous difficulties in terms of implementation in the field. How can these problems be solved? What types of knowledge transfers might be conceivable from South to North?
Selected Bibliographical References
Amadou Sanni M., 2011, “Niveaux et tendances des besoins non satisfaits de planification familiale au Bénin. Facteurs explicatifs et changements dans le temps”, African Population Studies, 25(2), p. 381-401.
Amadou Sanni M., 2015, Planification familiale, contraception, opportunités politiques. Discussion du Rapport de synthèse de l’atelier sur les tendances récentes de la fécondité en Afrique subsaharienne (2e partie).
Amadou Sanni M., Klissou P., Marcoux R., Tabutin D. (eds.), 2009, Villes du Sud. Dynamiques, diversités, enjeux démographiques et sociaux, éd. des Archives contemporaines.
Beckouche P., Grasland C., Guérin-Pace F., Moisseron J.-Y. (eds.), 2012, Fonder les sciences du territoire, Paris, Karthala, “Collection du CIST”.
Bonnet E., 2015, “C’est sur les routes des pays les plus pauvres qu’on meurt le plus”, in V. Ridde and F. Ouattara (eds.), Des idées reçues en santé mondiale, Montréal, Presses de l’Université de Montréal, p. 139-143.
Couclelis H., 2011, “The Territory is not the Map: Steps towards a New (Meta)Science”, in P. Beckouche, C. Grasland, F. Guérin-Pace and J.-Y. Moisseron (eds.), 2012, Fonder les sciences du territoire, Paris, Karthala, “Collection du CIST”, p. 71-82.
Magnaghi A., 2014, La biorégion urbaine. Petit traité sur le territoire bien commun, Paris, Eterotopia.
Massicotte G. (ed.), 2008, Sciences du territoire : perspectives québécoises, Québec, Presses de l’Université du Québec.
Nikiema A., Bonnet E., Sidbega S., Ridde V., 2017, “Les accidents de la route à Ouagadougou, un révélateur de la gestion urbaine”, Lien social et politiques, no. 78, p 89-111.
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