Half-Day Seminar, Urban and regional research: Beyond methodological nationalism and colonial legacies, 20.05.2025, 2-7pm CET

12 May 2025

Sciences Po, Room J210, 13 Rue de l’Université, 75007 Paris

In-person only

Urban and regional research: Beyond methodological nationalism and colonial legacies

The seminar focuses on rethinking how methods and theories tackle the complexities of urban and regional dynamics. By bringing together interdisciplinary scholars, the event examines how contemporary methodologies—from transnational and postcolonial perspectives to critical urban theory—can analyse patterns of inequality, social exclusion, and urban transformation. It will tackle the following questions: How can novel methodological approaches better capture the interplay between local practices and global forces? In what ways do existing theories limit our understanding of urban spatiality and regional development, notably in postcolonial contexts? By critically reassessing research designs and theoretical paradigms, the seminar aims to foster methodological pluralism and theoretical innovation, ultimately offering more nuanced insights into the multifaceted realities of urban and regional spaces.

The afternoon is designed as a collaborative moment for research. The collective discussion is led by four researchers who will be presenting the theories and methods they use in relation to their empirical research. It is structured in three rounds of questions to engage the audience with the speakers’ work:

Theories: what theoretical categories and strategies can help move beyond national and colonial frameworks?
Heuristics: how to choose methods to deal with the national as a level and as a category?
Comparison: how is comparison helpful? should we compare beyond national frameworks?

14h00-17h45

Manisha Anantharaman, CSO, Sciences Po

Garance Clément, Laboratoire SAGE, Université Haute Alsace

Adrian Favell, the Radical Humanities Laboratory, University College Cork

Thomas Lacroix, CNRS/CERI, Sciences Po

Chair: Gabriel Feltran, CNRS/CEE, Sciences Po

15-minute coffee breaks included (15h00, 16h15 & 17h30)

17h45-18h30

Closing remarks and discussion

Patrick Le Galès, CNRS/CEE, Sciences Po

18h30-19h

Cocktail

Speakers

Manisha Anantharaman is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Center for the Sociology of Organisations (CNRS/Sciences Po). She works at the intersection of economic and cultural sociology, political ecology, and environmental governance, using ethnographic methods to study how ecological transitions are shaped by inequality, identity, and institutions. Her research spans urban sustainability, digitalization, consumption, and green public space, and is published in Urban Studies, Journal of Consumer Culture, and Social and Cultural Geography. She is the author of Recycling Class (MIT Press, 2024) and co-editor of The Circular Economy and the Global South (Routledge, 2019).

Garance Clément is Associate Professor of sociology at the University of Haute-Alsace, and a member of the SAGE research unit (Societies, Actors, and Government in Europe). She specializes in urban sociology, with a focus on residential and social inequalities in cross-border regions. Her doctoral thesis titled Migrer près de chez soi (“Migrating Close to Home”) explored how the French middle classes settle in neighbouring Belgian cities, shedding light on a discrete form of intra-European migration. She co-authored the book Sociétés frontalières which compares cross-border mobilities and lifestyles in three urban areas. More recently, she began working on domestic power in relation to energy consumption, comparing the case of Mulhouse in France and Manchester in the UK.

Adrian Favell is Professor of Social and Political Theory & Director of the Radical Humanities Laboratory at University College Cork, Ireland.
Website: www.adrianfavell.com

Thomas Lacroix is a geographer, CNRS Research Professor at the Centre for International Research of Sciences Po Paris and a fellow of the Institut Convergence Migrations. Thomas Lacroix works on the social and spatial aspects of transnational migratory worlds and the way they affect states and territories. His research focuses more specifically on the formation of city networks on migration issues and their influence on both local reception policies and the international governance of migration. He has published some fifteen books and special issues of journals, including, with Amandine Desille, International Migrations and Local Governance. A Global Perspective (Palgrave 2018), The Transnational Society (Palgrave 2023) and the Transnational State (Palgrave 2024).

Patrick Le Galès is CNRS Research Professor of Sociology, Politics and Urban Studies at Sciences Po, Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics. He was the founding Dean of Sciences Po Urban School. He is a co-editor of the European Journal of Sociology/archives Européennes de Sociologie, a former editor of the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, and past president of SASE (Society for the Advanced of Socio-Economics). He is a fellow of the British Academy, the Academia Europea and the Académie des Technologies.
His urban research was firstly about European cities and urban regions on questions of governance, urban policies, class making and mobility, published as European cities: social conflicts and governance (OUP 2002), Changing governance of local economies (with C. Crouch and al., OUP 2004), Globalising minds, roots in the city (with A.Andreotti and F. Moreno Fuentes, Wiley 2015), La métropole parisienne comme anarchie organisée (with F.Artioli, Presses de Sciences Po 2023). His current research project WHIG (what is governed and not governed in large metropolis) is based upon the comparison of Paris, London, São Paulo and Mexico. His forthcoming book Intrumentation and public policies, controversies and debates (with C.Halpern and P.Lascoumes) will be published by Edward Elgar in 2025.

*The link will be sent to you after your registration

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