The People
This is about us and what we are ready to share on the worlwide web
Jean-Philippe Venot
I am conducting research at the interface of Science and Technology Studies and the Anthropology of Development. I use these critical frameworks in support to the development and implementation of participatory approaches to support just water governance frameworks. I leave lots of comments on drafts, but I also have a particular fondness for cats and dogs, and I love gardening on my balcony – this allows me to keep nature tidy and goes well with my eye for details. I also read and collect comic books but that’s another story…
Romain Valadaud
I am a critical geographer who used to study on irrigation management in Asia. I learned a lot in these contexts, but I felt unanchored to a territory, a culture, and therefore a possibility to meaningfully impact the unequal and unsustaiable uses of water. A few more articles published by a white male in far away scientific journals did not seem like it would go a long way to produce change in water in authoritarien regime struck by a structural poverty. So I came back home, to France, to Montpellier a city were I was born and raised, and where, since then, I am working reflexively on participatory research. This feeds my attempts to build transdisicplinary alliances anchored in a hydrosocial territory in order to challenge power relations and structural to unequal and unsustainable uses of water. To cool down from work and militantism, I tend to walk a lot along all kinds of streams, small and large, quiet and talkative. It also feeds a growing passion for the creation of role playing games, which are increasingly water related…
Paul-Malo Winsback
I am a political sociologist, and so far my work has mostly dealt with the construction of water bureaucracies in Southern Africa as well as the development of water and electricity markets in Senegal. These different fields have strengthened my interest in a reflexive approach to conducting research, attentive to the structural inequalities that shape our everyday relations and what we often consider to “go without saying” – even more so in postcolonial contexts. I am now conducting research on sustainability science and its role in supporting transformative governance on freshwater in the Global South, trying to bring forth a reflexive and critical perspective on our research practices.
Caroline Falize
I support the emergence of ideas, assemblages, and the expression of agreements and disagreements within groups. I design and facilitate participatory processes and gatherings. My joy lies in adapting programs as we go, making space for the unexpected to foster deep connections and breakthroughs. Walking, playing, moving, creating, awakening the body and the senses, letting emotions dance, elaborating installations and stories, and shifting perspectives to see more clearly. Always with gentleness, sensitivity, and care for each person’s needs and rhythms. Through these sensitive approaches, I widened the space for dialogue and reflexivity — so as to nurture individual and collective awakening and encourage cooperation and commitments to life.
Samia Chrii
I am an agro-economist working on issues of territorial development, with a particular interest in collective action and natural resource governance in rural areas. My work focuses on how local initiatives contribute to shaping more sustainable and inclusive forms of development. My interest in research emerged during my Master’s internship within a research team, where I was introduced to a reflexive approach to development and governance issues. Since then, I have been working in a research environment, mainly supporting and engaging with local actors involved in collective water management initiatives. For the past four years, I have been working closely with a farmers collective managing groundwater resources in southern Tunisia. This field experience provides a valuable lens to explore issues of resource governance, cooperation among stakeholders, negotiation processes, and the long-term sustainability of territories. My work aims to better understand how local forms of organization can support more collective, sustainable, and equitable management of water resources.
Charlotte Hemingway
I am what one could call an agro-geographer specialised in the analysis of agrarian transitions (so far in the Global South) and inequalities in agriculture. My work examines patterns of social differentiation among farms and explores who benefits and who loses from different policies and development processes. My research is grounded in fieldwork, involving extensive semi-structured interviews, alongside observations of landscapes and agricultural practices. I am particularly interested in how material conditions — such as access to infrastructure and the use of resources — shape social inequalities. I’m trying to make visible inequalities in agriculture, with the hope that public policies and development projects better consider the social diversity of farmers.
Raphaele Ducrot
My background is in agronomy, but I turned to agro-geography as I realized that in order to comprehend a farmer’s decision-making process, you had to understand their territory: the place and land they work on, the relationships and power dynamics they must negotiate, and the questions of justice woven into the landscapes where water flows and people live. This led me towards a way of working that is both systemic and relational — drawing on multiple disciplines and knowledge systems to make sense of how people and their irrigated schemes, water infrastructures, or catchments hold together and face risks, uncertainty and changes over time. Always at the intersection of research and intervention, I navigate with farmers, water users, and decision-makers to explore responses to these changes. For me, understanding complexity means stepping into it. What moves me most is the people: It never ceases to amaze me, every time I sit down with a farmer, a manager or a fisherman how much we share. My sense of peace and freedom, though, comes from somewhere else entirely — from the sea. From wide open saltwater, and from the small, quiet signs of human life found along its edges.
Sylvain Massuel
I worked as a quantitative hydrogeologist in semi-arid areas and became interested in understanding and modelling the evolution of groundwater reserves in relation to societies. I engaged in interdisciplinary research on water that put to the fore the co-constitutive nature of social and hydrological dynamics. Apart from that, I find a certain sense of calm in the 10-years-long renovation of my house, a project where I can control every little detail and give free rein to my imagination.
Justine Bassoul
I am a project manager for a regional research support programme called ‘Défi Clé Water Occitanie’, which investigates the feasibility of water reuse. It is funded by the Occitanie Region and administered by the University of Montpellier. My role involves ensuring favorable conditions for the development of research projects and acting as an intermediary between researchers and local stakeholders within ‘Living Labs’. I co-facilitate these Living Labs, bringing together local stakeholders and researchers to jointly develop research questions. These questions are closely linked to local challenges regarding water reuse. I enjoy helping to forge these human connections, building relationships of trust, and learning from others’ perspectives. I hope that the meetings and exchanges between a diverse range of stakeholders and researchers from different disciplines will lead to the development of sustainable and equitable solutions. In my spare time, I enjoy walking in the forest to pick mushrooms, sleeping in a mill and listening to the sound of the water…
Sylvie Morardet
She is too
Géraldine Abrami
she is very cool too
Amandine Adamczewski
she is a very cool guy
Luisa Barquero
she is very cool too
Olivier Barreteau
He is too
Bruno Bonté
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Anne-Laure Collard
I am a sociologist. I studied the movements of reconfiguration, reinvention or rupture in the relationship between water and society in contexts where water is scarce. I regularly collaborate with colleagues from other disciplines, which leads me to explore the modalities of interdisciplinary dialogue. Presently, I am exploring the use of alternative forms of writing whilst reflecting on the forms of engagement, the discomforts and the possibilities they offer. I like the color ochre, receiving postcards and taking small steps to the side.
Titouan Filloux
He is too
Emeline Hassenforder
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Caroline Lejars
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Véronica Mitroi
He is too
Andrew Ogilvie
He is too
Amine Saidani
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