COT: Changes, Organisations, Transitions

The aim of the COT research area is to study transitions taken in the broadest sense, that is to say, the processes of the transformation of work and organisations towards more sustainable societies, based on solidarity and fairness, involving forms of collective action particularly in the economic, industrial, agricultural, cultural, artistic and educational spheres, as well as in the technical sphere (including digital technology).

These transformations vary depending on, and are influenced by, the characteristics of the socio-ecological ecosystems, the specific features the territories in question, the standards, laws, educational practices and other institutional contexts, the interdependencies between sectors of activity and their societal coherence, particularly in relation to vocational training and education. These The challenges posed by societal transformations are therefore deeply cross-cutting and multidisciplinary. 

To highlight the specific characteristics of these forms of organised action involves examining, through their reproduction, transformation or creation, the relations with the territories which they maintain. This analysis of organised forms of action and their dynamics of (or within) transitions can be conducted both through observation of the decision-making and governance processes that may accompany these more or less radical transformations, and through examination of social, technical and productive interactions in different spheres, or even the everyday, sensory practices of individuals that reveal the effects of the social construction of norms, the colonisation of the imagination, or the experimentation with alternatives.

This raises the complex question of the maintenance, repair or reorganisation of some human activities and, consequently, of occupations, knowledge and skills (related to work, citizenship, education, health, etc.), inherited from industrial history and a form of intensive capitalism that destroys human and non-human life. Alternative organisations, dissenting groups, meta-organisations, third places, social and solidarity economy organisations, schools, sensitive and artistic environments, the commons, platforms, networks, screens and interfaces, enable us to analyse the reality emerging within the crucibles and potentially subversive and emancipatory spaces that challenge this crumbling legacy.