2 April 2024

10:55 – 11:40

Amphi 3

Stephanie Yates

Stéphanie Yates is a full professor in the Department of Social and Public Communication at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), and a member of Labfluens – Laboratoire sur l’influence et la communication and the Groupe de recherche en communication politique. A political scientist by training (Ph.D Université Laval 2010), she is a specialist in lobbying, social acceptability and related communication issues. She regularly works as a trainer, consultant and expert on these issues. Her research also focuses on citizen participation and the media strategies of public and private players in socio-technical controversies, particularly in the fields of health, the environment and ecological transition.

How socially acceptable is the ecological transition?

Faced with the climate crisis, difficult societal choices will have to be made, both in an attempt to curb global warming and to adapt to climate change. The transition from fossil fuels to renewable or less-polluting energies is already giving rise to intense social tensions, as evidenced by citizens’ protests over the exploitation of critical and strategic minerals (graphite, lithium), the possible construction of new hydroelectric dams in Quebec, fuel taxes and the return of nuclear power in France. The local communities that will have to bear the negative externalities of these projects are often the first to react, denouncing the burden they have to endure in the name of transition. In this way, issues of environmental justice are at the heart of the debate. And they are set to intensify in the medium term, in view of the transition from energy to ecology, and the challenge to people’s lifestyles that this implies. Thus, in the face of the crisis, people are likely to be called upon to reconsider the very notion of growth that underpins our Western economies. In short, future conflicts will make the notion of social acceptability even more acute. This presentation will provide an opportunity to reflect on these issues, their effects on living together, and the factors involved in the acceptability of transition projects.