New session of the "Paris IAS Ideas" online talk series, with the participation of Pr. Helga Nowotny (ETH Zurich, ERC) and Paris IAS fellow for one month in writing residency as part of the "Paris IAS Ideas" series.

The "Paris IAS Ideas" online talk series features short and stimulating presentations from fellows of the Paris Institute for Advanced Study, marking the beginning of 1-month writing residencies.

Only online and in English
Free event but registration required.
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Presentation

The Socioscope, a programme developed by the IEA in Paris and the Complexity Science Hub, seeks to understand how to make our world more sustainable, particularly in the area of food.

To date, the Socioscope project has collected qualitative data on the activities of more than 600 local initiatives in 35 countries committed to improving sustainability in the food sector. The deployment of the ‘transaction grid’, i.e. the mapping of the interactions and relationships of each local initiative with other stakeholders in terms of who gives and receives what, quickly made us aware of the importance of entities at the meso level: municipalities, NGOs, businesses, consulting firms, government programmes and other coordinating bodies. This raises questions about their different modes of operation, resources, strategies, motivations and impact.

The data collected so far (and to be completed in 2026) in ‘transition zones’ located in regions with different cultural, political and economic histories and in different current geopolitical contexts allows us to take a more systemic approach to the issues raised above, as it enables us to synthesise the perspectives of the different actors and their relationships. For example, it appears that the relationships between micro-entities and meso-entities in different ‘transition zones’ give rise to the emergence of different notions of sustainability. If we want to understand how transition processes unfold, we need to determine whether a multi-level approach is sufficient or whether there are better ways to conceptualise and operationalise the dynamics of relations between micro-entities and meso-entities. 

With this in mind, this research aims to question existing analytical frameworks for transition processes, examining whether a strictly multi-level approach is sufficient or whether new ways of conceptualising and operationalising the relational dynamics between micro and meso entities need to be developed.