Urban and environmental risks (RUE)

Presenters: Sofia Guevara and Zoélie Dupérier

The RUE (Urban and Environmental Risks) research area has been built around a key line of inquiry, examining the specific nature of risks observed in urban environments, with reference to industrial practices (particularly following the AZF disaster) as well as natural phenomena (such as floods or earthquakes). Since its inception in 2015, it has drawn on discussions on this theme within the framework of multi-year research programmes and seminars led by Valérie November and Jean-Pierre Galland. It has thus drawn on contributions from a variety of disciplines, including science and technology studies (STS), geography, sociology and political science, with a view to re-examining urban and environmental issues through the lens of risk, and vice versa.

Drawing on an analysis of a variety of contexts, both urban and non-urban, its members engage in a collective reflection on professional expertise as well as on the technical and legal mechanisms involved in the practical definition of situations or practices deemed ‘high-risk’. They are particularly interested in seemingly specialised tools, such as feedback mechanisms or crisis management exercises, deployed in fields as diverse as natural resource management, industrial innovation, and the nuclear sector. It is in this way that researchers within the research area come to question the taken-for-granted nature of the category of risk and the practices associated with it today, and indeed the political or professional framework within which it is situated.

One of the main aims of this research is to understand how the concept of risk is spreading—apparently slowly but inevitably—to many fields previously unfamiliar with this notion, whose stakeholders are now required to familiarise themselves with the terminology and logic of crisis, prevention, hazard, insurance and the management of uncertainty. Emerging concepts such as interlinked risks, cascade effects, anticipation and the circulation of knowledge are also examined. The research area takes a resolutely multi-risk approach and explores these risks across all spatial and temporal scales.

A seminar provides an opportunity for researchers from a variety of disciplines to address these issues. Open to external speakers, it aims not only to encourage the development of working hypotheses shared by members of the research group, but also to foster a fruitful, open and ongoing debate with professionals facing new challenges, particularly in the areas of crisis management and prevention practices. In order to broaden the scope of inquiry and draw on other perspectives, sessions are organised in collaboration with other research clusters within the laboratory, such as Politics, Markets and Urban Worlds (PMMU) and the Activities and Professionalisms seminar. Several study days are also organised.

Research projects also help to shape the community of members, whilst opening it up to new perspectives. UrbaRiskLab, led by Valérie November and funded by I-Site FUTURE (under the ‘safe and resilient city’ challenge), is, for example, a continuation of the Euridice programme (‘ Research team on risks, crisis management and major incident response”) carried out in partnership with the General Secretariat of the Defence and Security Zone of the Paris Police Prefecture from 2015 to 2018.