Manouk Borzakian

Géographe, postdoctorant à l’École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Manouk Borzakian travaille sur la métropolisation et l’aménagement urbain à travers le cas genevois. Il s’intéresse aussi aux pratiques culturelles et à leur dimension spatiale, ainsi qu’aux représentations géographiques dans le cinéma, en particulier nord-américain.

Bureaucratisation de la recherche et confusion entre chercheur et expert.

Manouk Borzakian | 09.07.2014

Priority research topics tend to be decided outside of the scientific field, favouring the rise, within social sciences, of “abstract empiricism” (Wright Mills 2006), i.e. detailed researches that carefully avoid theorization or generalization — such as the work consultant firms do. A possible justification of this tendency is the objectivity that is allegedly expected from the researcher. A second argument relies on a simplistic view of the epistemological rupture and the confusion between intellectual rigour and reluctance to theorize. [...]

Vraies et fausses évidences de la géographie électorale suisse.

Remarques sur une votation populaire et son traitement graphique.

Manouk Borzakian | 27.05.2014

Various maps of the results of the 9th February 2014 Swiss vote “Against mass immigration” have been used in the debate that followed it. They offer the opportunity to question methodological decisions regarding the making of electoral maps and the ensuing statements. The maps that were the most shared on the Internet and in institutional media convey a partial view of the polls’ socio-spatial logic. In order to produce a more complete analysis and to minimise the ecological fallacy [...]

Genève face à sa mondialité.

Anglo-saxons et portugais comme marqueurs de la segmentation spatiale genevoise.

Manouk Borzakian | 02.04.2013

In this article, Geneva, a small world city that is facing a significant economic and demographic growth, is examined with the help of a map where spatial distribution of Anglo-Saxon and Portuguese residents is represented. The different distribution patterns show the impact of globalization on the urban space. These patterns also illustrate the risk of socio-spatial fragmentation, which is not inevitable but far more dangerous for Geneva’s development than densification. It is the latter however that tends to be [...]