Historical sociology - Session 2. The construction of notions: analytical operators, comparatism and singular concepts
If interdisciplinarity is a buzzword within the academic bureaucracy, it's hard to conclude that it exists in practice. Embracing a slogan does not an epistemology make, and claiming progress is no guarantee of it. To prevent the interdisciplinary approach from being reduced to avant-gardism, it is necessary to define the practical conditions for bringing together the different social sciences, going beyond the encounter between academic disciplines or the eclectic taste for the exotic. The eight sessions of the course presented below will seek to provide both a method for the construction of analytical notions by young researchers in history and sociology, and a set of tools favoring the objectification of scientific work in the social sciences.Session 2 - The construction of notions: analytical operators, comparatism and singular conceptsAs the division of labor between sociology as a producer of notions and history as a source of examples constitutes one of the main epistemological obstacles to a consistent practice of historical sociology, it is necessary to define a method for the elaboration of notions that can serve as analytical operators. In this context, the question of comparatism, a term covering diverse and sometimes contrary practices, appears central.Possibility of following the seminar online via Teams
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Partnership with the Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse National Park
With its expertise in the field of geology and biodiversity conservation, the UNamur is one of the partners of the new Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse National Park designated by the Walloon Government. Alongside the other actors and promoters of the project, the UNamur will make its knowledge and experience available to enhance and preserve this exceptional natural heritage!
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The PraME Centre contributes to the restitution of a charter from 1176
At the end of January 2023, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) returned a real treasure to Belgium: a medieval charter bearing the seal of the Count of Flanders Philippe d'Alsace, formerly kept in the abbey of Messines (West Flanders), which had disappeared at the beginning of the First World War. A look back at the tribulations of this archival document, the restitution of which is the result of a fruitful collaboration between the PraME Centre of UNamur, the General Archives of the Kingdom and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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Participatory funding: Specularia, experimental archaeology project
The Department of Art History and Archaeology of UNamur is participating for the first time in an experimental archaeology project, within the framework of a doctoral thesis on the production of glass in the Roman period. Conducted in partnership with Malagne, the Rochefort archaeopark, the Specularia project aims to gain a better understanding of the reality of the gestures and techniques of Gallo-Roman craftsmen and to scientifically validate hypotheses that are still debated today. To carry out this experiment, the Department of Art History and Archaeology is launching its first participatory funding.
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Research centers
Research centers
AcanthuM (Monumental, archaeological and artistic heritage)
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ARaiRe (Recherches namuroises en histoire Rurale, 1500-1850)
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Fontes Antiquitatis center
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HiSI research center (History, sounds and images)
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Pratiques médiévales de l'écrit (PraME) research center
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FNRS 2024 calls: Focus on the PaTHs Institute
Two researchers from the Institut Patrimoines, Transmissions, Héritages (PaTHs) have just been awarded funding from the F.R.S - FNRS following calls whose results were published in December 2024. The PaTHs institute is a federation of research centers and groups that have sprung up in and around the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters. The institute is distinguished by its emphasis on critical analysis of the "traces" of the past (written, material, monumental, landscape, visual, sound...), to the point of placing the "trace" itself at the heart of scientific questioning.
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The CSS
The "Crime, Security and Surveillance in the Digital Age (CSS)" unit brings together researchers from CRIDS and the V&S Centre, some of whom are practitioners and most of whom are teachers, around three lines of research: crime, security and surveillance in the digital age.
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Vincent Jacquet, the political scientist who scrutinises citizens' assemblies
In the summer of 2022, we set out to discover the UNamur Qualified researchers who were awarded funding by the FNRS in 2022. We met Vincent Jacquet, a member of the Department of Political Science and the Transitions Institute. His research focuses on citizen participation and its impact on solving the crisis of democracy.
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An ERC Starting Grant for F.R.S.-FNRS qualified researcher Vincent Jacquet!
In the summer 2022, we met Vincent Jacquet, a qualified researcher from UNamur, to obtain his FNRS qualified researcher mandate. Today, we meet him after the signature of an ERC Starting Grant for his project CITIZEN_IMPACT.
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An ERC Starting Grant for Professor Jérémy Dodeigne
Jérémy Dodeigne, professeur de sciences politiques à la Faculté des sciences économiques, sociales et de gestion de l'UNamur, et président de l’Institut de recherche Transitions vient de décrocher une prestigieuse ERC Starting Grant de près de 1,5 Millions d'euros pour son projet POLSTYLE.
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Politics: "Voter turnout in decline: are Belgians turning their backs on elections?" (#2)
On June 9, 2024, Belgians will go to the polls to elect their European, federal and regional representatives. This triple ballot will also mark a major first in Belgium: the participation of 16-18 year-olds in European elections. With its Political Science department, and the research carried out within the Transitions Institute, UNamur is sharing its expertise to inform and raise awareness among students, the general public and professionals in the political and legal sectors, about the major issues at stake in this election! Until June 9, 2024, ten key themes will be covered on the UNamur Newsroom. Today: voter turnout in Belgium. Jérémy Dodeigne, Professor of Political Science, explains.
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ERC starting grant POLSTYLE
Hardly a week goes by without reports of elected officials—often depicted as ‘populists’—having used vitriolic language and viciously attacked their opponents. In a context of ‘restyling of politics’, the style of political actors is presented as increasingly emotional and confrontational. Some scholars have argued that these styles directly challenge the democratic functioning of our modern societies. Yet, in the absence of longitudinal studies, such claims remain trivial intuitions and anecdotes that are as old as politics. Do the styles of modern politicians constitute new trends or reflect old habits? What are the factors constraining or favouring certain styles? Against a form of nostalgia for ‘good old times’, this project critically challenges the idea that emotive and confrontational styles are necessarily threats for our contemporary democracies. The central claim of this project is that not all hostility is equal. Conflicts are the democracy’s lifeblood allowing—and even requiring—heated disagreements, including sometimes uncivil and nasty interactions between political adversaries. By contrast, styles founded upon violence and intolerance must be considered as incompatible with the functioning of our pluralistic democracies: such styles transform political adversaries into enemies to be destroyed.
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