Funded by the Bruno Latour Fund for a period of 3 years (2023-2026), this postdoctoral project by Cassandre Rey-Thibault focuses on the adaptation of coastal urban spaces to the risks of climate change.

In the face of climate change, urban coastlines are critical areas for future forms of habitability. Rising sea levels and temperatures expose them to combined hazards (submersion, salinisation, heat waves, etc.). While in France risk management is dominated by State-centered segmented public policies, climate change challenges these paradigms, especially the common distinction between risk and crisis.  Indeed, crisis situations are increasingly likely to arise even before the evolving risks have been clearly defined. In these circumstances, does the risk management paradigm hinder adaptation rather than facilitate it?

Through a comparative study of the practices of local stakeholders in 3 port cities (Boston, Le Havre and Rotterdam), this project will contribute to explain how different political, institutional and epistemological configurations give rise to different adaptation responses to the effects of climate change.

Funding

Established in 2022 at the initiative of Bruno Latour, the Bruno Latour Fund - "A New Climate for Social Sciences" is an ambitious postdoctoral research program at Sciences Po dedicated to studying environmental and climate change. This postdoctoral program is unprecedented in scale and scope.