The PREMIS monthly seminar is hosted by the CURIOUS research centre at the Institute of Psychology and Education (IPE) of the University of Neuchâtel, and co-led by:
Prof. Laure Kloetzer (sociocultural psychology, IPE, UniNe)
contact: laure.kloetzer@unine.ch
Dr Alain Sénécail (science education, TECFA, University of Geneva)
contact: alain.senecail@unige.ch
Dr Thierry Deshayes (sociolinguistics, Taiwan)
contact: thierry.deshayes.pro@gmail.com
Introduction
Against the backdrop of the environmental crisis of the Anthropocene, marked in particular by the collapse of biodiversity (IPBES, 2019), there is an urgent need to rethink the relationships between humans and other living beings. PREMIS (Inter-species Practices, Relations and Mediations) is a monthly interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research seminar, conducted in French and/or English, in a hybrid format.
It is open to anyone with an interest in ecological issues – citizens, students, researchers, mediators, museum curators… – who works on the relationships between humans and more-than-humans, and who wishes to explore how to develop these relationships harmoniously.
The seminar covers the full range of interspecies relationships, whether involving non-human animals, plants or soils, by linking empirical data with conceptual frameworks. It focuses on the ways in which we speak, feel and relate to other living beings, as well as the social architectures – both symbolic and material – that structure these interactions. In this context, it also seeks to examine the role of education and mediation in supporting these transformations in a sustainable manner.
In particular, the seminar aims to provide a framework for theoretical and methodological reflection for researchers working on these issues and to facilitate inter-institutional exchanges, especially with research and educational institutions such as the University of Neuchâtel, the Neuchâtel Museum of Natural History, the Neuchâtel Botanical Garden, the HEP BEJUNE, or the schools of the canton.
It also builds on the interdisciplinary and interfaculty Master’s programme in biodiversity conservation established by the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Neuchâtel (https://www.unine.ch/ formation/master-of-science-or-arts-in-biodiversity-conservation), as well as the pedagogical approaches of “open schooling”, “boundary crossing”, “utopian pedagogy” and “performative pedagogy” promoted by the Institute of Psychology and Education at the University of Neuchâtel.
Our research questions
What approaches can we propose today to move beyond the nature-culture dichotomy and rethink the relationships between humans and non-humans?
Methodologically, how can we analyse interspecies relationships?
Theoretically, what concepts should we draw upon to consider interspecies relationships and their development today?
What are the conditions for implementing educational actions fostering interspecies relationships and encounters?
How does the capacity of humans to form relationships with other species develop over the course of their lives, within their historical, cultural and socio-material contexts? How can we analyse the agency of non-humans in the development of this relationship?
What practices, forms of relationship and encounters are fruitful from the perspective of biodiversity conservation in contemporary urban environments? How might we rethink the city as a place of cohabitation from a More-than-Human perspective?
How can we take into account the diversity of our contemporary relationships and mediations with nature? What are the roles of affects, imagination, art, play, various forms of language and technology play in this relational process? How do certain ‘experiences of nature’, both direct and indirect, become transformative? Of what? To what ends?
How can school practices, including forest schools, school gardens or citizen science activities, foster these relations? How do they contribute to transforming young people’s relationship with nature, our cultural representations of nature and the school itself?
How does the language we use shape our relationship with nature, and how can we transform it? How can we take into account the presence and agency of more-than-humans in the analysis of interspecies communication?
How can our disciplines—including psychology, educational sciences, science education, sociolinguistics, museology, ethnobotany, biology and anthropology—integrate ‘More-than-Human’ approaches into teaching and research?
How can we shift the focus of our scientific analyses and theories to give balanced consideration to both humans and more-than-humans?
Some references to think with
Guattari, F., & Antonioli, M. (1989). Les trois écologies (Vol. 70). Paris: Galilée.
IPBES, W. (2019). Intergovernmental science-policy platform on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Summary for policy makers of the global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services of the intergovernmental science-policy platform on biodiversity and ecosystem services. IPBES Secretariat, Bonn, Germany.
Chanvallon, S. (2016). Regard sur la rencontre animale et pistes méthodologiques. Natures Sciences Sociétés, 24(1), 57-66. https://doi.org/10.1051/nss/2016009.
Davidson, G. L., Butler, S., Fernández‐Juricic, E., & Thornton, A. (2021). The city as a new habitat: Implications for bird cognition and behaviour. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 376(1838), 20200515. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0515
Hall, M. (2011). Plants as persons: A philosophical botany. SUNY Press.
Haraway, D. J. (2016). Staying with the trouble: Making kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press.
Lahire, B. (2023). Sciences sociales du vivant. La Découverte.
Lee, V. E., & Thornton, A. (2021). Animal cognition in an urbanised world. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 9, 633947. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.633947
Marzluff, J. M., & Angell, T. (2005). In the company of crows and ravens. Yale University Press.
Mueller, M. L. (2017). Being salmon, being human: Encountering the wild in us and us in the wild. Chelsea Green Publishing.
Pedersen, H. (2023). Post-anthropocentric pedagogies: Purposes, practices, and insights for higher education. Teaching in Higher Education, 30(2), 344–358. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2023.2222087
Sebeok, T. A., & Umiker-Sebeok, J. (Eds.). (1992). Biosemiotics: The semiotic web 1991. Mouton de Gruyter.
Stépanoff, C. (2024). Attachements: Enquête sur nos liens au-delà de l’humain. La Découverte.
Tsing, A. L. (2015). The mushroom at the end of the world: On the possibility of life in capitalist ruins. Princeton University Press.
Viveiros de Castro, E. (2014). Cannibal metaphysics. Univocal Publishing.