EN
My name is Léa Eynaud, I am a PhD student in sociology at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris and in environmental science at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. My research is concerned with the notion of the commons and its link to that of urban sustainable transition. It consists of two main parts. On the one hand, I am interested in the work of actors who give shape to the notion at the encounter between theory and politics - hence my interest for the work of many participants to CommonsWatch. On the other hand, I am involved in three key sectors with regard to urban transition: that of waste, energy and urban nature. In each case, my research targets citizen initiatives that appear to comply to the minimum definition of a commons: community reuse centers; renewable energy cooperatives and community gardens. I investigate the actual practices of these actors, the manner in which they interact with other actors and the State, as well as the narrative they use to describe their activities. I lead this part of my research in two main cities: Paris and Berlin. A crucial point to make regarding my research concerns methodology, which can be described as mainly inductive. As a matter of fact, my ambition is to account for what actually happens on the ground - for what counts in the eyes of the people involved, depending on the situations and the (social) worlds in which they engage. Such an approach entails understanding the history and development of the movement as an exploratory process. It means taking the back and forths, the negotiations as well as the concrete support of action as significant elements as to what it actually mean to give shape to the concept of the commons" in a given context.
