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).
The health crisis linked to Sars CoV-2 has profoundly modified the codes and forms of sociability. Beyond the barrier gestures, a different World is taking shape. This text is a poetic exercise to account for all that individuals and social groups have lost and beyond the impoverishment of urbanity in this period. [...]
Cet article est proposé par le rhizome Chôros. Pour expliquer la dynamique de la pandémie du Sars-CoV-2 de 2020, de nombreux « facteurs » simples ont été proposés : l’âge ou des prédispositions génétiques des patients, la pollution… dont certains, d’autre moins, ont résisté à l’avalanche des informations et aux avancées de la recherche. D’autres, comme la température (le [...]
How the American Presidential election map can be read ? The contrasted distribution of the votes which follows the urbanity gradients prompts first to compare 2020 and 2016 elections. Beyond this, these geographical arrangements suggest interpretative elaborations about the overall dynamic of the US society. The hypothesis of a low-interaction cospatiality between two ways of manufacturing social worlds emerges. One of them is based on stock-capital and on the quest for stability in communal allegiances, the second one pertains [...]
A much listened program, no doubt also heard, the weather report whispers daily in the ears of viewers. If the course is strictly marked and walked in, if the remarks seem anecdotal and only detailed. But some other messages, more political, may interfere indirectly. [...]
In the context of the health crisis of 2020 and the ensuing collapse of air passenger traffic, several companies have successfully offered trips to nowhere. However, traveling without a specific destination is not a new practice, and these forms of mobility deserve to be questioned with regard to their spatial stakes. [...]
Beyond the emotional agitation, the question of the relations between dogs and humans does not only question human societies. It questions the whole humanity, in its capacity to project itself beyond itself. [...]
Is there a ‘sextinction’ in progress? The recent observation that sexual practices are experiencing a reduction among the younger generation deserves a close scrutiny. Paradoxically, the liberation from constraints and taboos that had impacted sexuality has eventually made possible its relativization with regard to other activities. As a language, ethic, and culture, sex is being reinvented within the moving picture of social life. [...]
Within a pandemic process where unknown and novel realities can be numerous, some actors cannot help saying: “I told you so”. Among them, activists of the neo-naturalist current are seeking at all costs to connect this event to their common speeches. Inside this movement, Dominique Bourg et Bruno Latour have set themselves up as prophets of immanence. Immanence is a new religion that replaces ancient transcendent gods with a powerful, moralizing Nature and reduces the humans to weak and [...]
Inhabiting happily in the World: the idea has often been associated with mobility. By restricting them, the current coronavirus pandemic crossed with old texts, invites us to ask the question again... [...]
Une affiche dans le métro. Elle fait la publicité pour des psychologues venant au domicile des patients. Mais elle interroge aussi la nature de la relation entre les lieux et les habitants à travers les mots qui en résultent. Ce faisant, elle implique l’une des questions essentielles de l’habiter. Habite-t-on d’abord une langue ou des lieux ? [...]
