3 April 2024

14:20 – 15:05

Amphi 3

Yann Fournis

Yann Fournis is Professor of Political Science at the Université du Québec à Rimouski (Department of Societies, Territories and Development). He is a member of the Groupe de recherche interdisciplinaire sur le développement territorial, de l’Est du Québec (GRIDEQ), the Centre de recherche sur le développement territorial (CRDT), and an associate member of the Centre de recherche sur les innovations sociales (CRISES). His research focuses on the profession of local elected official in rural Quebec, theories of social and territorial development, and territorial governance in outlying regions.

Towards multiscalar governance of energy controversies?

Major energy projects have been at the forefront of new balances between territory and development, giving certain energy sub-sectors (wind power) an innovative role in redefining the logics presiding over the co-construction of territorial and energy transitions (Fournis, Fortin, 2017; Gendron, 2014; Batellier, Maillé, 2017). In particular, the notion of social acceptability now makes it possible to envisage a socio-technical dialogue in energy matters, establishing a welcome symmetry in project implementation logics that are traditionally not very open (of the DAD type: Mermet, 2004). Here, the dialogue between social and technical, at the heart of technical sociology, has been combined with the dynamic linking territories and political institutions (Fortin, Fournis, 2014); Yates, Arbour, 2016). Yet, following numerous recent works (for energy: Gaede, Rowlands, 2018; Wolsink, 2018), it appears that there are still significant confusions as to the logics at work, their dynamics, their complexity, their multi-level dimension, and so on. In this paper, we would like to emphasize that it is possible to deepen the intersection between these two perspectives, by positioning it at another territorial level (around national institutions and mechanisms of public debate) and at other links of public action (the implementation but also the formulation of public policies). As a result, thinking about social acceptability is no longer focused solely on the territorial implementation of major technical projects, but can be opened up to the processes that make up multiscalar governance of socio-technical controversies.