Laboratory for interdisciplinary research on cities, spaces and society (EVS RIVES)
The Research team RIVES (Research on Cities, Spaces and Society) is part of the CNRS “Environment, City, Society” Laboratory (UMR 5600).
RIVES is one of the founding components of this laboratory mainly composed of geographers. From the beginning RIVES brought to this collective its interdisciplinary research culture in "urban studies", widely developed in Anglo-Saxon countries, when the French tradition has rather led to the empowerment of city planning as a discipline.
/// Researchers interested in the political, economic and social implications of urban planning
Research is oriented in line with the urban studies courses developed in the English-speaking research world, in which urban subjects are approached from the angle of all the social sciences. These subjects and approaches reflect both the institutional and geographical positioning of EVS-RIVES.
As part of a social sciences UMR located in a graduate engineering school with a school of architecture close by, EVS-RIVES is perfectly situated to facilitate the crossover of disciplines, knowledge and expertise at the heart of space-related action. This situation is also enhanced by its special links to the professional world of urban planning. In effect, many engineers trained at ENTPE go on to work for public urban planning services.
/// 6 academic disciplines
- urban planning,
- anthropology,
- geography,
- history,
- political science,
- sociology.
/// Strong commitment to teaching
Lastly, while most members of EVS-RIVES are researchers, they are also involved in teaching, particularly on the specialized “Urban Planning and Policies” course taken by 2nd and 3rd year students at ENTPE.
This course forms part of 3 Master specializations:
- Urban Studies and Urban Planning, jointly awarded with Lyon 2 University / Lyon Institute of Urban Studies,
- Cities and Urban Environments, under the LabEx IMU label, jointly awarded with 10 other institutions,
- Public Policies, with the Lyon Institute of Political Studies (IEP).
/// The UNESCO Chair in Urban Policies and Citizenship
EVS-RIVES also hosts the UNESCO Chair in Urban Policies and Citizenship, founded in 2007 by Bernard Jouve and run since 2018 by Anaïk Purenne.
The Chair examines, from a political perspective, the way in which city dwellers relate to large cities and to the institutions in charge of making and implementing urban policies. It explores and analyses the social, spatial, economic and political mechanisms affecting integration, cohesion and solidarity.
Citizenship is looked at through the multi-disciplinary approach that defines urban studies, as much from the perspective of political science as from that of sociology, geography and urban studies.