Research Theme for 2007-2010

CRISIS and its variations

From the very start of the 2007 academic year, IMéRA chose to work on the theme of crisis in order to bring together the questions raised by the various disciplines.

Robert ILBERT, Chairman of IMéRA, explained why this theme was chosen in his introduction to the First IMéRA Meeting, which took place on 7 November 2007 as part of the Rencontres d'Averroès.

The Institute organised various workshops and other meetings based on the idea of crisis and its variations, the details of which are given below.

Robert ILBERT, Presentation of the First IMéRA Meeting, “Crises and Ending Crises,” 7 November 2007.

"The theme “Crises and Ending Crises” is directly linked to the cross-disciplinary project of IMéRA and the Mediterranean.
I recall that around ten years ago, when I was inaugurating the Château-Gombert campus with the research head and the then Minister, just at the same time as we were putting the finishing touches to the building of the Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences de l’Homme, I was struck by the name of a laboratory called IRPHE (Institut de Recherche sur les Phénomènes Hors Equilibre, the Institute for Research into Phenomena Out of Equilibrium). I wondered then why we hadn’t asked them to help us build a project on the Mediterranean: if ever there was a system out of equilibrium, it is the Mediterranean! This anecdote stuck in my mind for years. I thought to myself that one day I should talk to the researchers in that lab, and ask them, “What do you mean by ‘phenomena out of equilibrium’? What do you call equilibrium or not? Crisis or not?” And that is how we arrived at the theme of “Crises and Ending Crises”; “Ending” arose perhaps because historians, like all café-counter philosophers, cannot imagine one (crises) without the other (ending), a point which no doubt requires study! And so we decided that IMéRA should open by testing questions which were really very banal, and this first encounter illustrates that perfectly. What we are trying to do, is to ask OURSELVES, to ask YOU, about the meaning of banal questions, like that of crisis. We are not here to invent new solutions, we are here to provide you with the conditions in which to interpret them, and that is quite another thing. The basic idea underlying IMéRA, is creating conditions for meeting, a form of crossroads allowing for something to be born. Basically, that is it.
This first meeting, like IMéRA, is an experiment around what academic discussion should be, assumed as such without shame, an instrument to help us, to help you, to decode and—if not to understand—to put into perspective. This ambition requires debates to be as open as possible.”

19 October 2007 "On the notion of crisis"

Synthesis of the IMéRA meeting ""On the notion of crisis,"", by Pierre LIVET.

7 November 2007 First Meeting of IMéRA: "Crises and Ending Crises"

IMéRA’s first public event took place in Marseille on November 2007 at the Marseille Bibliothèque Municipale à Vocation Régionale library, as part of the Rencontres d'Averroès, based on the “Ending crises” theme.

Programme -Download program in PDF version (1Mo.)

Presentation and inauguration

Participants	Texte	Vidéo
Bernard MOREL, Treasurer of IméRA
Robert ILBERT, President of IMéRA
Jean-Paul de GAUDEMAR, Rector of the Aix-Marseille Local Education Authority

First Round Table: The idea of crisis

Discussants	Texte	Vidéo
Gilles DORIVAL, the philologist’s perspective
Pierre LIVET, the philosopher’s perspective
François EISINGER, the perspective of the specialist in predictive medicine
Pierre CHOUKROUNE, the geologist’s perspective
Jacques PANTALONI, the physician’s perspective

Second Round Table: The crisis of science: what comes after?

Discussants	Texte	Vidéo
Gretty MIRDAL, the psychologist’s perspective
Betul TANBAY, the mathematician’s perspective
Jean-Marc MONTEIL, the psychologist’s perspective

Third Round Table: The Mediterranean: A permanent state of crisis?

Discussants	Texte	Vidéo
Jean-Pierre FILIU, the political scientist’s perspective
Mohamed TOZY, the anthropologist’s perspective
Jacques LEVY, the geographer’s perspective
Philippe JOUTARD, the historian’s perspective

7 December 2007 A for Anticipation

A for Anticipation,, text by Robert ILBERT for the "suggestions box" on IMéRA’s previous website

Blindness/perception/improvisation

Note 1 - The question of blindness: the epistemological aspect, by Pierre LIVET and Gabriella CROCCO

Note 2 - Presentation of PEUT ETRE, an experimental performance by Thierry GIANNARELLI

Note 3 - Perspective on 20th century history: A 1952 advertisement for Dachau, by Robert ILBERT

Note 4 - Cartography and blindness, by Jean-Luc ARNAUD

Note 5 - Dogmatism and blindness, by Jacques PANTALONI

Negotiation and the precautionary principle: ways of ending crises?

Introductory Presentation: Precaution as seen through examples taken from medical history, by Anne CAROL

The precautionary principle, a response to crisis?, by Antoine LYON-CAEN

Precaution and negotiation, the example of climate change negotiations, by Laurence TUBIANA

IMéRA Event with Dominique Maraninchi

An example of a health crisis: The Epinal affair,, by Dominique Maraninchi

Debate: "The Mediterranean, from geology to geostrategy"

Debate organised by IMéRA as part of the BioMarine Form, at the Parc Chanot.

"The Mediterranean, from geology to geostrategy,"", with Robert ILBERT, historian, Pierre CHOUKROUNE, geologist, and Jean-Luc ARNAUD, historian.

Debate on the analogy between continental drift, the creation of the Mediterranean, geological times and human constructions liable to give rise to mass forces, empires and civilisations which are likely to experience displacement, failure and even disappearance.

Rencontre-débat : "La crise comme horizon ?"

Avec Bernard Morel, économiste et aménageur, directeur de la MMSH ; Pierre Duquesne, Ambassadeur chargé des questions économiques de reconstruction et de développement ; Henri Regnault, Professeur à l’université de Pau et des pays de l’Adour, spécialiste des problèmes de développement en Méditerranée et Amérique latine ; Philippe Jeannin, Professeur à l’université de Toulouse, économiste et spécialiste des phénomènes de risques.

Henri REGNAULT, La très grande crise et ses débats

Pierre DUQUESNE, La crise comme horizon : cinq questions principales

Philippe JEANNIN, La crise : un miroir pour les économistes ?

Rencontre-débat : "Apocalypse now ?"