Contribution short abstract:

The talk will show how the local field is a place to experiment with multidisciplinary work, and will promote a teaching environmental history that goes beyond the classroom, e.g. through field trips which show the materiality of the daily environment, and encourage reflection on its history.

Contribution long abstract:

This communication aims to report on my years of research and teaching since 2017 and the start of a collective research experience on the “environmental transition” of the Lyon metropolitan area since the Second World War (Lyon is a French agglomeration of approximately 1 million inhabitants aroung 1970). During the research, it also appeared that the "transition" was not only a movement of ideas towards ecological awareness, but was also a landscape transition, marked by urban sprawl and decline of peri-urban nature. These concrete changes have obviously provoked protests or environmental reflections among different categories of actors.

The talk will show how the local field is a place to experiment with multidisciplinary work, then to create a framework of promotion for society and students. I will advocate for teaching an environmental history that also goes beyond the classroom, through the website created to promote research, and through field trips which show the materiality of the daily environment, and encourage reflection on its history. This material perception (visual pollution, noise, smell, etc.) can be highlighted by artists, press coverage, and groups of residents, but is much less fostered by academic researchers.