Xavier Bernier est maître de conférences en géographie à l’Université de Savoie (Laboratoire EDYTEM, CNRS). Il étudie les sociétés au prisme de leurs mobilités et de leurs différentes façons de traverser l’espace. Le géotype montagne sert de cadre à une grande partie de ses publications où il est envisagé à travers les pratiques spatiales. Ses travaux sur la notion de traverser le conduisent à interroger ce défi social à travers les figures spatiales qui lui sont associées.
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. [...]
Conducted in an innocuous manner, the search for the title of a song heard in a mini-series mobilizes, however, the tools made available to all by information technologies. The sociologies of everyone cross the algorithms and other "filter bubbles". These forms of intelligence as well as their combinations, far beyond their amazing efficiency, question. Do the constructions of this contemporary "sur-mesure de masse" open up to the world or do they lock everyone with what they already know ? [...]
Why did the word « problem » almost completely vanish from French-speaking public communication ? This event does confirm the importance of hyperbole, euphemism, and litotes in the dynamic of languages. This process also gives us clues about the actors of these changes: an uncoordinated multitude of ordinary speakers is capable, without any pre-set scheme, to set languages in motion. [...]
Réouvert en juillet 2018 après être resté fermé quatre ans pour d’importants travaux d’aménagement, l’hôtel Lutetia de Paris a d’emblée proposé des services de luxe au-delà de la simple hôtellerie. Centre de bien-être (associant spa, cours de fitness et de nutrition), piscine, salon de coiffure… viennent ainsi compléter une offre de restauration élargie. Comme d’autres [...]
To experience the crowd, whether in the metropolitan area or anywhere else, is, strictly speaking, to suffer under the weight of others. What is revealed are the workings of these uninhabitable ordinary people, who occasionally populate daily life and make us wonder : is the « overflow » of men and women a reasonable way to think the notion of habiter (to dwell), starting from its worst variations ? [...]
Making cats veggie ? This is a plan well under way, which deserves attention. It is quite different from a classical protest against animal exploitation, but rather the sketch of a new political relationship that humans could entertain with the living world. [...]
Au printemps 2018, le quartier du Marais à Paris a été le théâtre d’évènements politiques qui n’ont pas manqué d’attirer l’attention. Rappelons les faits. À l’occasion, en juin, de l’anniversaire de « la Marche des Fiertés » ou Gay Pride, plusieurs passages piétons avaient été peints aux couleurs de l’arc-en-ciel, une référence aujourd’hui bien identifiée de la [...]
