The environmental crisis caused by productivism questions the models of action promoted in the name of modernity, focused as they are on perpetually increased performance and universal reproducibility in any context. By the same token, the crisis also favors the emergence of a new attitude of frugality attentive to the use of resources in a given milieu, in spatial terms as much as in cultural, social or economic terms. In a hyperconnected world, widely circulating singular approaches supplant models with purported universal validity, suggesting a new complexity in the relation between the local and the global. This theme aims to seize a panorama of pedagogies invested in this new way of imaging situated development, as well as to identify their possible contribution to new figures of internationalization, and cooperation in particular.

Although global changes may affect all parts of the planet in similar ways, the way to address them differs depending on each country’s state of development. But this state may vary widely depending on geopolitical relations between different regions, themselves constantly evolving.

Moreover, the criteria used to measure a country’s relative level of development are subject to ongoing debate. Regions considered less developed from the perspective of productivismmay therefore provide knowledge that is helpful for crisis-stricken regions that are facing global changes in other latitudes.

This theme seeks to present research and teaching that exemplifies new « North-South » relations.

Long regarded as tools for growth while disregarding their negative effects on the planet, technical approaches today appear as key components for promoting new forms of development that are sensitive to environmental quality.

This theme therefore considers evolutions in sector-specific approaches to cities and regions, such as infrastructure, mobility, natural resources, energy or digital technology, with an emphasis on how such approaches contribute to more sustainable forms of action.

The new stakes presented by the ecological transition have already been integrated into higher education in a structured way. This theme therefore aims to take stock of the strategy and policy tools that governments and various entities at the national scale use to align education with the matter of the ecological transition, with regard to similar actions carried out by intergovernmental agencies and supranational organizations at the international scale. The range of topics here include the multiple forms of internationalization in training programs, including student and teacher mobility, international curricula, study travel, recruiting, and the diversity of actors taking part in financing, organizing and executing these activities.