From the very beginning of economic thought, the concept of crisis has been the subject of analysis and controversy (Boccara, 2013). It is used to shed light on the forms of imbalances that mark the functioning of markets, the process of capital accumulation or even the balance of power between the actors present on the economic scene. Some authors affirm not only the recurrence of crises but also their “necessity”. The rhetoric of the crisis is frequently used to address the political balance of power in the European Union and to explain its difficulties in defining a clear political project allowing it to assert itself as a global actor. It is mobilized to apprehend phenomena as disparate as that of financial markets, disruptions in supply chains or the effects of the war in Ukraine, the question of welcoming immigrants or even the various issues related to climate change, or the need to manage the scarcity of energy sources.

Without wanting to sink into a debate that assumes that any economic, political or social difficulty can be qualified as a crisis, in the context of this call for communication we raise the question of the recurrence of the crisis phenomena that mark the life of European societies and the European Union as a supranational structure. Indeed, as Antoine Mégie and Antoine Vauchez observe: the astonishing multiplicity of uses and meanings that the "crisis of Europe" takes on immediately calls for vigilance with regard to this category of analysis. On the one hand, there is a history specific to the notion of “crisis” which has become, particularly since the 1960s, the all-encompassing category of critical publications. Since the 1970s… Edgard Morin pointed out the inherent limitations of the term crisis and called for a necessary overhaul of “crisology” (Morin, 1976). The stated objective was to respond to the uselessness of such a category which, while defining an increasingly certain reality within the framework of a discourse which already at that time was making itself present, constituted a word without heuristic value (Mégie, Vauchez, 2014, p.2).

Taking this caveat into account, the subject of this symposium nevertheless focuses on crisis, on the crises that European and other societies are going through. We invite the authors to conduct a theoretical reflection around this notion necessary to reveal its heuristic dimension. It is also a question, from studies and observations of specific fields, of taking an analytical and diagnostic look at the forms of crises, of questioning their impact and of identifying the methods of action which carry a preventive or curative dimension. The issue chosen for this conference of the ERECO-PGV network also consists of considering the phenomenon of the multi-crisis as an object of conceptual and/or practical reflection.

The notion of crisis is treated in different disciplinary fields. Economists explain it by “over” or “under” consumption, by technological shocks, or by the insufficient efficiency of capital (Denape, 2021). For historians, crisis designates different processes of pressure and for sociology and certain life sciences, the term "crisis" does not turn out to be very interesting (Ordioni, 2011) yet this notion invites the expression of critical thought.

Today, in Europe, crises are piling up and intersecting. This takes on a form of "multi-crisis" (Salmon, 2009) because there is not just one phenomenon that founds the reality called crisis, but several phenomena that intersect or follow one another, inducing a systemic vision of crises. The historical cycle, which began in the 1970s, has gone through a combination of economic, financial, climate and health crises, and is currently undergoing an energy crisis in the context of an unexpected military conflict. It is therefore a very broad and complex subject, requiring to be studied in many aspects and soliciting different disciplinary and analytical points of view. The orientation of the specialty themes of ERECO-PGV points towards individuals, companies and territories.

Individuals (citizens) were first affected by the health crisis and its consequences on their social life and their way of working (Duché, 2021), and are therefore vulnerable to a high cost of living. The climate crisis also requires changes in their behaviour in order to protect the common good that is the planet. Has a more or less unified approach by nation states in the fight against these contemporary crises, including military aggression in Europe, strengthened citizens' awareness of belonging to the democratic European community? On the subject of companies, history teaches us that each crisis sends the business world back to face the challenge of finding solutions in terms of production, responsibility towards society and also finding new opportunities that arise. (Giraud et al., 2021) claim that companies will have to turn to the development of the "living economy" in order to reassess all economic activities from the point of view of their usefulness, their contribution to health, to the environment, the sustainability of life and social cohesion in a symbiotic system. Are the experiences observed in companies proving to be up to the current crises? The territories are also affected by periods of crises, both from an operational point of view in terms of the actions implemented and from a strategic point of view. However, they have repeatedly proven that they can support development and innovation, both through their public policies and through the mobilization of many local and regional actors. It would be interesting and useful to study different aspects of this mobilization in terms of skills and to reveal the methods implemented and transferable to other European territories.

Appreciated themes around “multi-crises”:

Companies and the European territory

Businesses and solutions to crises

Territories as a European dynamic

The territory, a strategic issue

The commitment of individuals to the European project

The individual/citizen and the issue of the carbon footprint

References

Boccara, P., 2013. Théories sur les crises, la suraccumulation et la dévalorisation du capital, Ed. Delga..

Denape, T., 2021. Comment les économistes expliquent-ils les crises ?  In :  Économie et politique, mai – juin, p. 67-71.

Duché, G., 2021. La pandémie mondiale et le monde d’après. Qu’avons-nous appris pour construire un autre monde ? Un défi pour l’Europe. In : Management & Gouvernance, n° 26(2), pp. 71-90.

Giraud, G., Sarr, F. 2021. L’économie à venir. Edition : Les liens qui libèrent.

Mégie, A., Vauchez A., 2014, Introduction : Crise, crises et crisologie européenne. In : Politique Européenne, 2014, n° 2, pp.8-22.

Morin, E., 1976. Pour une crisologie. In : Communications, n° 25, pp.149-163.

Ordioni, N., 2011. Le concept de crise : un paradigme explicatif obsolète ? Une approche sexospécifique. In : Mondes en développement. n^o 2, vol. 154, pp. 137-150.

Salmon, J.-M., 2009. Multicrise, gouvernance et mondialisation : une introduction. Accessible sur : https://mouvements.info/multicrise-gouvernance-et-mondialisation-une-introduction/.

Important dates for participants:

May 15, 2023             submission of abstracts to the ERECO PGV platform

June 15                       GREG meeting – evaluation of abstracts, communication of decisions to authors

September 15             deposit of contributions

October 19                  meeting of the Scientific Committee, communication with the authors of the results of the evaluation

The organizer provides 3 methods for the publication of the articles proposed at the end of the conference:

Springer (in English)

L’Harmattan (in French)

Management & Governance review (mainly in French)

Depending on their interest, authors are asked to follow each publisher's guidelines for presenting articles.

Ghislaine Pellat                                                                                Jana Marasova

Université Grenoble Alpes                                                                Université Matej Bel

Grenoble                                                                                           de Banska Bystrica        

ghislaine.pellat@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr                                         jana.marasova@umb.sk