Building a Commons Around Agrobiodiversity – The Gaps Between Commons Theory and Implementation Tools
This event has already taken place!
The Montpellier School of Humanities (MSH SUD) and the Toulouse School of Humanities (MSHS-T), the BiodivOc, RIVOC, and Octaave research initiatives, the University of Montpellier (AEB Cluster), Paul Valéry University (UPVM), and the doctoral school “Territories, Time, Society, and Development ” (ED 60) are pleased to invite you to the next conference in the series “Perspectives on Life in Society.”
Everysecond Tuesday of the month between October 2025 and May 2026.
Challenges! It’s time to face the challenges. Poverty, health, food security, water, climate, biodiversity… All the indicators are flashing red; environmentalists have even managed to put the concept of “planetary boundaries” on the international agenda, and scientists (some scientists, at least) are wondering how to put their expertise to work in support of “transitions.”
In light of the challenges posed by this transition, Mathieu Thomas and Frédéric Thomas —a population geneticist and a historian of genetics, respectively—will compare their perspectives on the relevance (or lack thereof) of applying Commons theory to research on “cultivated diversity,” with the aim of moving beyond the dichotomy between formal and informal seed systems.
This lecture series brings together experts from the humanities and social sciences on the one hand, and ecology (in the broad sense) and environmental studies on the other, to explore major environmental issues and broaden perspectives toward an interdisciplinary approach.
Eight doctoral schools in Occitanie (ED58, ED60, and Gaïa in Montpellier; SEVAB and SDU2E in Toulouse; ED305 and ED544 in Perpignan; and ED Risques et société in Nîmes) offer this program to their doctoral students as part of their training (registration required via ADUM).
The primary goal is therefore to foster “interdisciplinary understanding,” particularly among early-career researchers (although the seminars will be open to the entire scientific community), and to demonstrate how the same subject can be studied in very different ways by different disciplines. In the longer term, the goal is to encourage aspiring researchers to incorporate interdisciplinary approaches into their day-to-day work.
The series, offered in a hybrid format, is broadcast live from the Maison des sciences de l’Homme.
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