The trace of times. Socio-ecological complexes through the prism of landscape analysis. For an involved environmental geography ; La trace des temps. Les complexes socio-­écologiques au prisme du paysage. Pour une géographie de l'environnement impliquée

Abstract

This dissertation constitutes the core of a Habilitation to supervise research (HDR) in geography and planning. It is an original text whose guiding principle is to contribute to an involved environmental geography. In it, I explain the importance of using time and history to deal with environmental issues and to respond to societal expectations in this field. Contemporary environmental concerns seem to me to be the symptom of a major crisis in the relationship between nature and society, i.e. the way in which contemporary societies define, organise and represent their relationship with nature. My research focuses on the analysis of complex objects characterised by their socio-ecological hybridity and their multiple temporalities. I have made methodological choices that lead me today to approach these questions by privileging an entry through the landscape. This landscape-tool allows me to take into account the multiform relationships that exist between observation and experience, between forms and processes, between the element and the system, between the local and the global. The research device I am developing offers the possibility of collectively constructing an understanding of the complex evolutions at the origin of current environments and of sharing it in order to envisage together conceivable trajectories for the future. This leads me to present research perspectives based on the idea that landscape mediation is (or is becoming) a means of acting in a complex and uncertain world, by enabling a society in its environment to formulate territorial projects on a local scale and to regenerate the thinking of a development that would become truly sustainable. ; Ce mémoire constitue le cœur d'un dossier d'Habilitation à diriger des recherches en géographie et aménagement. Il s'agit d'un texte original dont la ligne directrice vise à contribuer à une géographie de l'environnement impliquée. J'y explicite tout l'intérêt de recourir au temps et à l'histoire pour traiter des questions d'environnement et pour ...