Research Axes
Six research axes were built around the major themes of citizenship and minorities. Each of these axes are overseen by a research director or co-directors responsible for the organisation of activities and projects revolving around their axis' main themes.
Research Axes
Democracy, Political and Social Thought
At a time when Western political thought tends to approach issues of democracy, citizenship and pluralism from the angle of legal and political theory, this research area emphasizes the study of more substantial aspects of political modernity.
Biopolitical issues and minority groups
This research axis focuses on issues tied to a citizen’s right to dispose of his/her life and body, and to the forms of life and death that trouble existing social, political and economic norms.
Ethics of Care
Since its creation in moral psychology in the 1980s, the ethics of care has been greatly politicised and has become a field of study in and of itself - a field resolutely interdisciplinary that marries sociology of work, gender studies, political science, philosophy, psychology, nursing, and literature.
Justice and Law
Beyond the study of law as a constitutive dimension of citizenship and as an orientation to justice, our concern is to understand justice and law in their function as producers of social ties.
Migration, Pluralism and Citizenship
This thematic research focus studies the construction of boundaries between those who are said to belong to the national society and those who don’t. This (non-)belonging can be social, political, economic, cultural and/or legal. At a time of globalisation, the examination of the construction of boundaries must take into account the multiplication of categorizations: related to class, sex/gender, and race/ethnicity/religion, and also, increasingly, to immigration and citizenship status.
Participation and Citizenship
As some bewail civic disengagement and others question representative democracy, analyzing people’s workaday social and political practices becomes a major issue in order to meet the challenge of a social life that integrates concerns for common goods.
Francophone spaces and transformations
This research area focuses on francophone spaces, not only in the geographical and linguistic sense, but also the political, cultural, affective and imaginary.