The ST aims to explore the consequences of taking ecological issues into account in our contemporary political systems, using the methodological and theoretical resources of political science. Two dimensions will be explored. The first will examine the epistemological dimension. In what way do the specific characteristics of the environment call into question the conditions under which sociological inquiry is constructed? The second looks more directly at what ecology does to institutional players. How are the classic actors of political analysis transformed by the irruption and management of ecological constraints? Axis 1: Studying ecology. Interactions and epistemological issues. This session will examine the feedback effects generated by the very nature of the "ecology" object. Beyond the routine methods of the social sciences, does the complexity of interactions between social worlds and non-human worlds raise other epistemological questions? What is the specificity of the methodological approach in political ecology? To address these questions, GREP wanted to frame the session around two issues, notably addressed by the thesis work of some doctoral students. The first concerns conditions of access to the field. Environmental mobilizations are on the increase, both in their discursive regimes (such as existential urgency) and in the repertoires of action used (from disobedience to violence, from hyperlocalization to transnationalization...), but also in the conditions of their political and legal treatment. We'll be exploring the effects of ecological tensions on fieldwork (closed access, co-optation, etc.): is the ecological cause in itself a condition for difficult access to the field? The second question concerns the conditions for securing research activity. Ecological mobilizations are subject to intensive legalization (administrative control, repressive practices, etc.). As a result, the investigator faces difficulties not only in gaining access to the field, but also in securing his survey data, protecting his sources, securing the actors he meets, and so on. This also raises questions about the conditions for publicizing the results obtained (certification, verification, etc.). GREP hopes to contribute to a collective reflection - beyond the ecological question alone - on the conditions for managing conflictual situations in the study of certain terrains. This will make it possible to clarify the conditions for protecting research at institutional level (protection of one's institution, mission orders, etc.). Axis 2: What ecology does to institutional players. This approach has already been the subject of a number of questions (such as the air-conditioning process, the proposals put forward by sustainability transitions, etc.). The workshop aims to reinforce and clarify some of the effects of this complex relationship. In particular, it will examine the framing effects of the actors involved in institutionalizing this object. This will enable us to present different strategies for adapting/reformulating/adjusting ecological issues according to the theoretical frames of reference and professional practices of the players involved. Certain dimensions may be highlighted, such as the relationship with the State/the forces of order (in the designation of legitimate forms of intervention by political ecology) or in the evolution of framing arguments (relationship with the law, diversification of causes mobilized, ecology and international regimes, etc.).

This chapter attempts to explain the missed appointment of ecology in the French presidential elections of 2022, by looking first at the dynamics of public opinion and the media. It then examines the place given to the environment in the presidential programs and the positions of the various candidates, before looking at the limited electoral consequences of these agenda shifts.

This chapter proposes to distinguish between the concepts of tripartition and tripolarization, by associating them with different arenas: the electoral arena for the former, the parliamentary arena for the latter. On this basis, he shows that both concepts are relevant for describing French political life after the 2022 elections: there is tripartition in the electoral arena and tripolarization in the parliamentary arena, a configuration unprecedented in the Fifth Republic. These results enable us to better characterize the new electoral order that crystallized after the 2019 European elections (Gougou, 2022): tripartition and tripolarization could be its distinguishing features.