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The CHANGES department was born out of the desire of social science research units to pool their strengths and skills in Bordeaux.

The scope of the department involves a broad interdisciplinarity within the Human and social sciences, combining disciplinary approaches in development, anthropology, architecture, demography, labor and social security law, epistemology, geography, history, history of science, history of law, landscape, philosophy, political science, economics, educational sciences, sociology, urban planning.

The scientific objective of the CHANGES department is to respond to the challenge of analyzing contemporary changes in all fields, including those of other sciences.

The historical context that motivates the focus on issues of change is that of an entanglement of the "natural", "technical" and "political" dimensions of increased risk and uncertainty in the governance of things and people, the extension of interdependencies, "butterfly effects" and solidarities between all levels.

The social sciences respond to these challenges with concepts and methods of inquiry and comparison that allow for a better understanding of how the reality in which we live is constructed, instituted, governed and transformed by relationships between actors.

Management

Director: Éric Macé

Deputy director: Marie Coris

Activities

Research activities at CHANGES are animated by an internal call for projects policy, intended to encourage the advent of original research projects or collaborative networking, with the objective of Human and social sciences actively contributing to major IdEx Bordeaux projects, as well as regional, national and European calls for research projects and collaborations with other scientific fields. These research activities have four main focal points:

• Focus 1: Change and/or consequence governance
• Focus 2: Innovations: products and results of change
• Focus 3: Actors of change: promotion, transformation and resistance
• Focus 4: Interdisciplinary analysis methodology in social sciences of change

The CHANGES department is a stakeholder in three Societal Innovation Centers (CIS):

• Forum Urbain
• VIA Inno, the technological intelligence platform
• Chrisalidh, the Resource Center for Social Innovation in Local Actions and Initiatives for Human Development

Component structures of the department

The department is made up of 12 units, 6 of which are primary units, 3 secondary units and 3 associated units, of which 5 joint research units and 7 hosting teams.

Primary units

• Émile Durkheim Center (CED - UMR CNRS 5116 - Sciences Po Bordeaux)
• Culture and Dissemination of Knowledge (CeDS - EA 7440)
• Research Group in Theoretical and Applied Economics (GREThA - UMR CNRS 5113)
• Laboratory of Epistemology and of Subject Didactics (Lab-E3D - EA 7441)
• Passages (UMR 5319 CNRS - Bordeaux Montaigne University - ENSAP Bordeaux - UPPA)
• Science, Philosophy, Humanities (SPH - EA 4574 Bordeaux Montaigne University)

Secondary units

• Center for Comparative Labor and Social Security Law (COMPTRASEC - UMR CNRS 5114)
• Montesquieu Research Institute (IRM - EA 7434)
• International Economics and Finance Research and Analysis Laboratory (LAREFI - EA 2954)

Associated units

• Africa Worldwide (LAM - UMR 5115 CNRS - Sciences Po Bordeaux)
• Environment, Territories, Infrastructures (ETBX - UR Irstea)
• Architecture, Town, Environment, Profession (PAVE - Higher School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture)

Governance

Component council

The council is composed of 28 members from the 6 primary unit laboratory councils, including 15 lecturer-researchers and researchers, 4 support staff, 6 doctoral and post-doctoral students and 3 external members.

Directors' committee

The Directors’ committee is made up of the management team members from the 12 department units.

Scientific council

The Scientific council is composed of 4 members:

• Michèle Lamont, Professor of sociology, Harvard University, Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Bordeaux
• Bernard Debarbieux, Professor of geography, University of Geneva, Dean of the Faculty of Society Sciences
• Catherine Larrère, Professor Emeritus of philosophy, University of Paris 1 - Panthéon Sorbonne
• Giovanni Dosi, Professor of economics at the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa

Doctoral schools

• Doctoral School for Economic Sciences, Management and Demography
• Doctoral School for Sciences and Environments
• Doctoral School for Physics and Engineering
• Doctoral School for Society, Politics, Public Health