The ENERGON 2025 Symposium: Energy Transition and Territorial Reconfigurations was held at the MMSH in Aix-en-Provence on November 20 and 21. It brought together approximately 100 researchers for an opening lecture, 27 presentations, and a roundtable discussion.
These two days marked the culmination of a cross-cutting research project involving six Human-Environment Observatories: two abroad—the OHMi Nunavik (Canada) and Pima County (Arizona, USA)—and four in mainland France: the OHM Pays de Bitche (Moselle), Fessenheim (Haut-Rhin), Vallée du Rhône, and finally Bassin Minier de Provence, which, through Sylvie Daviet, served as the lead and coordinator of this three-year project (2021–2024). "The ENERGON project was both retrospective and exploratory: retrospective because it built on the findings of many years of research on various energy-related issues in the participating OHMs (production, infrastructure, institutional and political frameworks, controversies, etc.), but also exploratory because it proposed testing an original Nexus-based approach. As recently as 2021, research on the localized impact of energy transitions remained largely sector-specific and narrow in scope. ENERGON’s success lay in overcoming this compartmentalization by integrating the social, technical, and environmental dimensions specific to each socio-ecosystem through the “Society-Technology-Environment” nexus approach, which made it possible to assess the impact of specific energy choices on these three components; with each of the OHMs involved serving as a real-world laboratory to test this approach while taking into account the specific characteristics of its socio-ecosystem" (C. Pardo, LabEx DRIIHM, November 2025).
Over these two days, ENERGON thus demonstrated its ability to attract and mobilize, through its original approach, a broader interdisciplinary community that strengthens the DRIIHM and OHM communities. While this seminar marks the conclusion of a project, it most certainly signals the beginning of new and fruitful collaborations.
Presentation of the conference by Sylvie Daviet, Professor of Geography and co-organizer of the conference