Presentation > Themes

Special sessions

S1 – Territorial reforms

Current territorial reforms are questioning the role, place and function of territories in social, cultural, economic and political change in France, in Europe and throughout the world. Essential markers include the on-going transformations in societies within the Maghreb (e.g., Tunisia, Morocco). What led to this demand for new territories? What do these expectations of territories mean for public action?

S2 – Territorial equalities and inequalities

Has the egalitarian injunction, as the territorial counterpart to the fight against social inequality, led to new demands for territories? What are the ethical and political, practical and theoretical, and programmatic foundations of this aspiration for territories as vectors of equality? Is there a contradiction between territorial equality and the relations between territories and larger entities?

S3 – Information and demands for territories

How can new information relating to demands for territories be collected? What are the objectives of these territorial studies? How should this information be analyzed? How can big data, wikis, intelligent cities, participatory mapping, and geomarketing, etc. contribute to territorial studies? What can be done with local information systems created for political, commercial or law enforcement purposes? What are the qualitative and quantitative methodological problems that have to be solved so observations and analyses of demands for territories contribute to furthering the territorial sciences?

S4 – Critical approaches to territorialized demands

What does the existence of “demands for territories” mean? How is the legitimization of territories formulated differently today? To what extent does this “search for territories” force the territorial sciences to consider the relations between democracy and territories? What are the power relationships that underlie and legitimize some territories but not others? Is there a hierarchy of legitimization of specifically territorial action?

Themed sessions

Papers may be submitted on the general topics covered by the CIST conference; however, each paper must address issues relating to one or more of these topics (for full text see French version)

T1 – Actions and territorializations

T2 – Agricultures, territories and sustainable development

T3 – Biodiversity and territories

T4 – Local territorial information

T5 – Media and territories

T6 – Mobilities, identities and territories

T7 – Regionalizations in the world

T8 – Risks and territories

T9 – Territories and health