Professeur de géographie et d’aménagement de l’espace à l’École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, où il est directeur du Laboratoire Chôros et co-directeur du Collège des humanités, il travaille sur la ville et l’urbanité, la géographie politique, l’Europe et la mondialisation, les théories de l’espace de l’individu et des sociétés, l’épistémologie de la géographie et des sciences sociales, la cartographie, l’urbanisme et le développement spatial. Il a notamment publié Géographies du politique (dir.), 1991 ; Le monde. Espaces et systèmes, 1992, avec M.-F. Durand et D. Retaillé ; L’espace légitime, 1994 ; Egogéographies, 1995 ; Le monde pour Cité, 1996 ; Europe. Une géographie, 1997 ; Le tournant géographique, 1999 ; Logiques de l’espace, esprit des lieux (dir.), 2000, avec M. Lussault ; From Geopolitics to Global Politics (dir.), 2001 ; Dictionnaire de la géographie et de l’espace des sociétés (dir.), 2003, avec M. Lussault ; Les sens du mouvement (dir.), 2005, avec S. Allemand et F. Ascher ; Milton Santos, philosophe du mondial, citoyen du local, 2007 ; L’invention du Monde (dir.), 2008. Il est co-directeur d’EspacesTemps.net (jacques.levy@epfl.ch).
Different kinds of conquest are more and more about circumterrestrial and interplanetary space. It concerns directly the meaning of the World and the place of humanity. What does it really mean to live outside the Earth ? Based on the recent spectacular promotional events of Elon Musk’s societies, this paper aims to give a social point of view. [...]
The book Théorie de la justice spatiale (2018) was published shortly before the outbreak of the political action of the Yellow Vests. The importance of the connections between space and justice in the public debate that followed shows that the spatial dimension of social life is now perceived in France as a component which cannot be reduced to others, more classic, like the economic and political dimensions. The concepts useful to think such a dimension, that the book advances, [...]
The major shifts that affect every electoral maps of the West for some decades are crystal-clear and convergent. They make possible simple, formalized propositions. However, some works show a reluctance to embed these changes in these approaches, as our theories of space/politics interactions require significant reshuffles. These novel phenomena generate a disruption that a part of the academic world finds hard to assume. This justifies an overall epistemological reflection on how scientists can encompass novelty in their research practices. [...]
The ordinary people’s daily life is full of adventures and misadventures, but less and less of tragedies. This is the consequence of the growing density of the interactions they perform with their fellow humans, which protect them from disasters and even boost them towards happy endings. This emergence might be a typical feature of the contemporary world. [...]
Seen through the experience of a couple on their honeymoon, the bankruptcy of the Thomas Cook company is structurally revealed as the all too successful success of a project aimed at training residents in tourism. Tom and Amelia are trapped in this situation. But this is without taking into account their ability to turn an unfavourable situation around and give it a successful outcome... [...]
Seasons are commonly presented as meteorological cycles deriving from climatic phenomena. They rather are conventional divisions of time and are part of the ritualization of social life’s repetitive components. As a result, when the presence or the absence of "natural" seasons and their supposed qualities or flaws are simplistically invoked, vigilance might be required. However, societies constantly strove to bypass cyclic weather constraints. Contradictions between official seasons and climatic practices actually paved the way for worthy-of-attention imaginaries and aesthetics. [...]
Selfying is nowadays a massive and worldwide practice. Recently, certain types of schizophrenic selfies have increased, especially on social media. Pictures of oneself may be transformed, by image distortion but also by several concealment techniques. What are the real stakes of these developments in the space of societies ? [...]
A practice almost as old as humanity itself, the technique of tattooing, an injection of ink under the skin, continues to be interpreted and reinterpreted, according to the times and societies. The contemporary period does not escape the phenomenon and, faced with the multiplication of these forms of writing that take the body as a page, invites reflection and questioning : what meanings, for tattooed people as well as for those who look at them ? [...]
The word "barbecue" comes from an Arawak language, but it actually encompasses very ancient practices. BBQ has once epitomised a family-focused, partially communal lifestyle. Now, its presence in public space makes a difference and is playing a part in the emerging society of individuals as a global civil rhizome. [...]
Tourist and sports itineraries or routes of memory can often be identified with an extent of development work on the land, and it can take sophisticated forms. But GPS drawing is quite an innovative way of practicing space. It requires a lot of new instruments of geo-localization. When the exercise is completely accomplished, an image or a text may appear on a numeric map. This produces new spaces and new spatialities. [...]
