International
“Work in progress” webpage
My international interest can be summerized in three folders : to read abroad, to search abroad and to build abroad !
To read abroad
I read in English scientific litterature as any “up-to-date” researcher does nowadays, and that has been really engaged during my first stay at Exeter university in 1999 (thanks to Andrew W. Gilg who wellcomed me as a PhD student). But I also try to read in other european langages: I spent 4 days in the main library of Wageningen university (The Netherlands), 4 days in the national library of Florence (Italy) and 4 days between 3 German libraries (München, Leipzig and Münster) during the 2010’s. Discovering some research results on my mains research focuses, that were unabled to cross the French boundaries, isn’t it exiting ?
Here is a picture from a master’s dissertation you can find in Münster’s geography library.
Luftbildaufnahme des Windparks Hollich, Steinfurt. Blick von Burgsteinfurt Richtung
Nordost nach Rheine / Ibbenbüren. (Quelle: WP HOLLICH O.J.)
Solinski Kai, Kommunale Strategien und Steurungsmöglichkeiten für regenerative Energieerzeugung am Beispiel der Windenenergienutzung. Master thesis, Institut für Geographie, Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität, Münster, 2014, 187 p. (Ulrike Grabski-Kieron & Franck Bröckling, dir.)
To search abroad
Every 10 years, I come back to the Creedy-Taw area, in Mid-Devon district (Devon, England), for two weeks of field study. That’s a very beautiful rural area, around Crediton, to some extend similar with my local study areas in Brittany. With my car, I meet some farmers in-between the Devon’s hedges to ask them some questions relevant for my current research topic. In 1999 I surveyed on the access to the countryside, related to my PhD. In 2009 I have been exploring the planning issues at the urban and farm interface. Since 2019, I have been waiting for the right opportunity to return…
In 2006, I had a chance to spend 2 weeks in Japan, studying the teikei movement and more generally the rural-urban food interface, through field studies in Chiba and Fukui prefectures and franco-japanese conferences in Tokyo and Kyoto… We also wellcomed Japanese colleagues in Brittany.
From 2013, I was involved in an international teaching workshop, leaded by Giuseppe Cina, from the Politecnico di Torino, and focused on periurban agriculture. The two weeks of intensive work with “my” team of 6 students from 6 other european countries (Italy, England, Turkey, Germany, Bulgaria, Czech republic) remain as great moments. The planning analysis and proposal of that group and of the 6 others are available on line.
To build abroad
The aim is there to built bridges with foreign colleagues and their universities.
In early 2020, two Welsh colleagues, Bryonny Goodwin-Hawkins and Michael Woods, came to me to try to set up a project on the effects of Brexit on fishing worlds. I had come across Michael a few times at rural geography conferences. As I am not a specialist, I proposed to Catherine Laidin, a political scientist at the Institut Agro and a member of my lab, to carry out this project for the French side. We submitted a project entitled “What impact of Brexit on fishing communities? A comparison between Brittany and Wales” to the MSHB*, which granted us funding for a seed project, i.e. to carry out studies to support a larger international project. Unfortunately we failed to obtain ORA7 funding for a larger project! But this adventure gave me the opportunity to discover Wales and the beautiful town of Aberystwyth…
From 2015 I and Colleen C. Myles (Hiner), a geographer from Texas State University, are throwing bridges over our shared topic “rural-urban interface”. From this personnal interest I was involved in the construction of a partnership between our teaching and research departments and labs, wining an EU support for 6 mobilities on each side for 2016-2018. Colleen has been visiting Rennes in June 2017 and I have been a perfect Texan in San Marcos (TX) in November 2017… You can read Colleen’s interview on that partnership in Rennes in 2022 on that page.
In December 2011, I met Mariavaleria Mininni during a conference in Grenoble (thanks to Serge Bonnefoy, from “Terres en Villes”, who proposed me to discuss Mariavaleria’s paper !). Mariavaleria is professor of urban planning in Matera (Italy). Last year, she came in Rennes to strengthen the partnership between Rennes 2 and Basilicate universities. In 2020 Vittoria Santarsiero, as PhD student, has been welcomed in Rennes but the Covid19 made her stay shorter. We keep in touch with Mariavaleria to manage student exchanges and further research collaboration on agri-urban interface and urban agriculture…