Social Ecological transitions seminar

Anne-Laure Beaussier (CSO-LIEPP), Éloi Laurent (OFCE), Mattéo Mandelli (CEE-LIEPP), Bruno Palier (CEE-LIEPP)

Presentation of the SET initiative

The SET (Social-Ecological Transitions) initiative aims to encourage collaborations between researchers and experts working on social and environmental issues, crossing disciplinary or institutional boundaries.

The social issues associated with ecological transitions (climate, biodiversity, ecosystems, resources) appear increasingly central in academic publications as well as in policy and political debates at all levels of government. On the academic side, a growing number of publications and projects address questions of inequality and environmental degradation (Chancel, 2022; Laurent, 2022) and highlight the possible distributive, social and political issues that could arise from of CO2 reduction policies, adaptation and protection from more frequent and more severe environmental hazards, as well as the inequalities produced by climate policies (Boyce, 2018). The regressive potential of reparation and insurance, mitigation and adaptation policies, such as, for example, carbon taxes (Zachmann et al., 2018) is attracting increasing attention, as the social risks associated with such policies materialize, for low-income households but also for those “just above” (Beaussier, Chevalier, Palier 2024). This work has recently fueled intense debates on “just transition” policies (Garcia-Garcia et al., 2022; Bauler et al. 2021) likely to reconcile environmental protection and social well-being, highlighting the need to align climate and social policies (Duit, Feindt and Meadowcroft, 2016; Gough, 2016), striving to define a “sustainable welfare state” (Büchs, 2021; Hirvilammi et al., 2023) or even a “social- ecological” (Laurent, 2024) within which “eco-social policies” (Mandelli, 2022) would be deployed.

In terms of public policies, the need to reconcile ecological transition and social justice is now obvious, particularly in the European context. At a time when mobilizations against climate policies are increasing, like the protest movements of farmers in France but also in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Italy and Greece, where currents populists make their opposition to climate policies a strong electoral issue, the challenge is to invent new social-ecological policies capable of profoundly renewing the European democratic project now placed under the aegis of the “Green Deal”.

In this new context, the SET initiative aims to be a platform for research and debate on the social issues, costs and risks associated with ecological crises and damage and the policies implemented in France, Europe and internationally to limit the magnitude. SET is based on a now widely shared observation: the environmental transition is in reality a plural social-ecological transition.

This interdisciplinary initiative brings together four science laboratories: the Center for Sociology of Organizations (CSO), the Center for European Studies (CEE), the Interdisciplinary Laboratory for the Evaluation of Public Policies (LIEPP) and the French Observatory of Economic Conditions (OFCE). It also collaborates with AIRE and the Environment Institute of Sciences Po. It aims to bring together and promote cooperation between researchers from various disciplines (economics, environmental humanities, political science, sociology, etc.), all by remaining open to researchers from other institutions, to professionals and experts involved in political debates on just transitions. The aim is to encourage common reflection, to progress in our knowledge and understanding of the social issues linked to socio-ecological transitions, and to make social science research on social-ecological transitions visible on French academic and political forums. and international

• 7 February 2024 (9h -12h30) Sciences Po, Campus Saint-Thomas Salle K011
  SET Inaugural Session 

Bringing together scholars conducting research on these questions (Pierre Charbonnier (CEE), Sophie Dubuisson Quellier (CSO), Charlotte Halpern (CEE), Joost De Moor (CEE), Mattieu Saujot (IDDRI), Éloi Laurent (OFCE ), Bruno Palier (CEE), Matteo Mandelli (LIEPP) and Anne-Laure Beaussier (CSO), this first session is structured around two presentations offering an overview of research on eco-social policies (M. Mandelli) and a review of the work of the High Committee for the Just Transition set up by the Belgian federal government (A. Fransolet). Its aim is to discuss an agenda and common interdisciplinary research avenues on the social issues associated to ecological transitions. Presentation

• 5 april 2024 (19h15-21h15) à Sciences Po en Amphithéâtre Claude Erignac à 19h15 / SET, WIL, CRIS

James Boyce Conference

James Boyce will receive the prix GiRA and will present its work, 30 years after the publication of « Inequality as a cause of environmental degradation ». The conference will be introduced by Lucas Chancel and Éloi Laurent and will be organized in partnership with the World Inequality Lab. 

• 24 april 2024, Salle K008 / SET, MIRE

Workshop SET/MIRE and launch of the research program “rethinking social protection in light of environmental crisis” supported by the MIRE (French Ministry of Health and Prevention). 

MIRE representatives will present their new research program aimed at questioning new and existing forms of social protection in the context of current environmental crises (climate, biodiversity, pollution, etc.), which gave rise to a call for research projects in spring 2023. The seven selected teams will present their projects and discuss their progress and avenues for analysis.

• 25 april 2024 10 am – 4.45 pm / Salons Scientifiques, SciencesPo

Format hybride

SET, Tobe, Sustainable Welfare and Eco-social Policy Network

International workshop on the socio-ecological dimension of the European Green Deal, jointly organised with the Sustainable Welfare and Eco-social Policy Network, 

Bringing together prominent European researchers (Katharina Bohnenberger, Ian Gough, Max Koch, Pierre Charbonier, Adeline Otto, Katharina Zimmermann, Amandine Crespy, Ekaterina Domorenok, Benedetta Cotta) and speakers from the European Commission, the European Parliament and ETUC, the workshop will discuss theoretical perspectives on sustainable well-being and eco-social policies beyond growth, political conflicts linked to environmental and social policies and the socio-ecological dimension of European Green Deal, highlighting its potential and its shortcomings. Presentation

• 15 may 2024

SET, Sustainable Welfare and Eco-social Policy Network

First practitioner roundtable on just transitions 

• June 2024

Young researchers workshop 

November 21st 2024

SET, Sustainable Welfare and Eco-social Policy Network

Second practitioner roundtable on Employment and the environmental transition