K6ET 2000 - URBAN ECOLOGICAL TRANSITIONS IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

When thinking about the future, nothing is more important than the past. The phrase “ecological transition” is widely used in contemporary environmental politics as a shorthand to indicate a structural transformation in human interaction with the living world that we need to avert the climate and ecological breakdown. Transition, however, it is first and foremost a historical concept: we can imagine a structural transformation only because we have observed other such shifts in the record of the past. If we want to have a clear understanding of the challenges that lay ahead of us, we need to look back at those past transitions: to understand the radical changes that happened in history and to see how deep are the roots of what is to be changed today. This course aims to put urban ecological transitions in historical perspective. As much as cities are at the forefront of radical experiments for present and future ecological transitions, they have been central to past transitions. This course will investigate the epoch-making transitions that cities have experienced from the 18th century onward, with a focus on Europe in a global perspective. By combining historical case studies with theoretical and methodological debates in urban and environmental history, it will investigate the actors, politics and consequences of transitions that have occurred in energy production and consumption, in the water cycle, in urban and industrial waste management, and in communities of plants, animals and microbes.

Giacomo PARRINELLO

Cours magistral seul

English

For each session, students will have one paper to read. Once during the semester they will prepare a monographic lecture based on a small bibliography the instructor will provide in advance. They will then have to collect data and

None.

Autumn 2021-2022

Students will be assessed on the content of lectures and readings via written tests and through the preparation of one monographic lecture during the semester with materials provided in advance by the instructor. They will also be assessed in groups through an original research work putting present-day transition issues in historical perspective.

The course will combine multiple pedagogical formats : the first half will be based on classic lectures, the second half will follow the flipped classroom model. The conclusion of the course will take the form of a student-led workshop on transitions in historical perspective.