Our History
We have been interested in public debate and
digital humanities for some time. Our very first
debates were carried out in 2012 on the theme "The
City of Your Dreams" with high school students
from Montpellier and Sète, with cooperation of the
city of Montpellier in the framework of
experimental research involving a researcher in
logic, Jean Sallantin, a professor of philosophy,
Véronique Pinet, and a design agency.
In 2015, the same team designed and developed the
Dialoguea platform and ran a trial in high school with the support of
the Montpellier School District.
En 2015, la même équipe conçoit et développe
la plateforme de débat
CartoDÉBAT was created in 2017 and the platform
was launched under the auspices of the European
research project E-Débat, in partnership with the
University Paul-Valéry then conducting action
research during prior consultations on a future
floating wind turbine project in the
Mediterranean. The platform is focused on land
use/development and renewable energies.
In response to regulatory developments in 2016 on
the digitalization of public inquiry, we worked to
ensure the regulatory compliance of the platform
and the visibility and accessibility of source
data of citizen statements, so as to more
effectively highlight comments from the local
public in the process of making improvements to
development projects that impact their region. As
of 2019 we are more broadly active in the sphere
of ecological transition policies such as climate
action or territorial coherence planning.
At the same time, our activities extend along a
second axis, that of education and debates on
science and society. We believe that ecological
resiliency goes hand-in-hand with a form of
democratic vitality and resistance to disturbances
amplified through social-media. Since 2016 have
participated in the project ARgumentation Et
Numérique (AREN), whose goal is to develop
critical thinking and reasoning skills among high
school students in the Montpellier School
District.
In 2023 we launched an international version of
CartoDÉBAT (6 languages) in the context of a
project on ethical issues related to the uses of
artificial intelligence and neurosciences. These
debates bring together students with their
research professors, economic players and the
greater public. At this time we are developing a
new version of Dialoguea destined for educational
establishments such as middle schools and high
schools.
We thank the following individuals for their confidence and their help:
- The team at intactile DESIGN for the R&D
work they have conducted on complex geopolitical
situation monitoring interfaces that have been
applicable to purposes of public debate.
- Sylvain Pioch of the University Paul-Valéry
of Montpellier for our collaborations on coastal
development.
- Jasha Oosterbaan of ISIS MINES ParisTech,
Stéphane Vial of the University of Nîmes and the
publishers Actes Sud and PUF for our
collaborations in debates on science and
society.
- Manuel Bachtold of the LIRDEF for his
pedagogical reflections on the scaffolding of
debate skills training on a digital platform for
high school students.
- Dominique Valck, Sandrine Bozzetti and
Rachel Kordus of the Council of Sustainable
Development of Grand Nancy; and the sociologist
Hervé Marchal of the Center for Research in
Societies, Sensibilities, and Care (LIR3S) of
the University of Burgundy for the definition
and the implementation of sensory engineering,
particularly in the context of the greater
national debate.
