On the occasion of the first Dialogue of the Living within Planetary Boundaries Chair for the 2025–2026 academic year, “Down to earth”: New Practices for Architecture, Anthropology, and Cartography, two podcast episodes extend the discussions initiated around territorial practices and contemporary transitions. Produced by Lucie Carpentier from the association Transitions Urbaines, they offer a new way to listen to, understand, and share these reflections at the intersection of research and action.
Part One
In this first part, Verónica Calvo Valenzuela revisits the arguments of Bruno Latour’s essay "Down to earth", which analyzes the crisis of political disorientation caused by globalization, economic deregulation, and the widening of inequalities. Traditional distinctions between left and right are no longer sufficient to understand contemporary issues, particularly the climate question, which has become central. Globalization has promoted mobility and the overcoming of borders, while the local was seen either as a space of positive rootedness or as a form of identity-based withdrawal. But this opposition between the local and the global no longer works: “the ground is giving way,” and societies no longer know where progress lies. Verónica then describes the framework of political attractors: the global, the local, the out-of-this-world, and above all the “terrestrial.” The latter refers to a new relationship with territory and with the Earth, understood no longer as a backdrop but as a political actor in its own right.
Alexandra Arène from Atelier SHAA discusses the search for new ways of representing territories by bringing together different scientific disciplines. The aim is to understand landscapes, damaged lands, and ecological transformations through a concrete and situated approach, attentive to earthly attachments and long-term temporalities.
Part Two
In this second part, Soheil Hajmirbaba discusses new democratic tools designed to address today’s ecological and social crises. He proposes recreating a shared political space within a society marked by conflicts of opinions and interests. Soheil also redefines the notion of territory: it is no longer simply a geographical space, but rather a set of human, emotional, and ecological attachments that a collective is called upon to defend. The challenge, therefore, is to identify what people care about, what is under threat, and the relationships that connect them to this territory.
This approach is based on investigations, observations, and collective discussions, particularly through the “compass” exercise, which seeks to connect lived problems with concrete solutions. Soheil notably describes what this process produced in Ris-Orangis and in the ZAC des Cartrons development area in the municipality of Brain.
Transitions Urbaines is an association based in Nantes that documents and analyzes contemporary territorial transformations. Through field investigations, editorial productions, and audio formats, it explores emerging practices in planning, dwelling, and ecological transitions, giving voice to a wide range of actors, including researchers, practitioners, and public decision-makers.
As part of the first Dialogue of the Habiter au prisme des limites planétaires Chair, held on March 30, 2026, these two podcast episodes were produced to extend the discussions initiated during the event. They feature contributions from Verónica Calvo Valenzuela, Alexandra Arène, and Soheil Hajmirbaba, revisiting the issues addressed on that occasion.
This work forms part of an ongoing dialogue between Transitions Urbaines and the Chair, centered around shared interests: observing territorial transformations, fostering exchanges between research and practice, and making these reflections accessible to a wider audience.
