The Mediterranean house of human sciences |
|
First broadcast date
12/03/1998
Abstract
On the occasion of the assessment of the ‘University 2000’ plan, presentation of the Mediterranean House, based in Aix En Provence.
Production companies
-
Antenne 2 - Own production
Primary theme
Human and social sciences
Secondary themes
- Society and way of life / Education, teaching
- Society and way of life / Public areas and social issues
Credits / Cast
- Chastagnaret, Gérard - Participant
Map locations
- France - South East - Aix-en-Provence
Context
The Mediterranean house of human sciences
Nicole Girard
In its initial presentation and commentary, this film combines three subjects which are about higher education: the launch of a project called "University in the 3rd Millenium", the opening of the Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences de l'Homme (MMSH: Mediterranean House for the Human Sciences) and that unit's integration in the Jas-de-Bouffan district in Aix-en-Provence.
The opening of the MMSH in Aix coincides with the launch of the "University in the 3rd Millenium" project by Claude Allegre, Minister of Education, Research and Technology (1997-2000) in the government of Lionel Jospin. It was a follow-on from the "University 2000" plan which Allegre had set up when he was special advisor to the (then) Education Minister, Lionel Jospin, the aim being to build new universities and renew older ones to accommodate the increasing number of people who wanted to go to university, and to make up for the lack of investment over the years.
The MMSH, which was part of the "University 2000" project, is a teaching and research faculty specialising in the Mediterranean world in terms of the human and social sciences. It was built on a campus outside the town so it could give space to research teams who previously had been in cramped quarters in the centre of town or at the Faculty of Letters on Robert Schuman Avenue. Conceived along the same lines as the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme on the Boulevard Raspail in Paris, brainchild of historian Fernandel Braudel, it brings together the laboratories and different researchers from different disciplines, a sound and films archives specialised in Mediterranean subjects and issues. Its ten laboratories are what are called "mixed" units, that is they are made up of university-level research laboratories (mainly from the University of Provence) and post-grad laboratories used by the CNRS (the French National Centre for Scientific Research). In its particular sphere, the MMSH has become the main French centre and one of the main European centres for research in this part of Europe. Leading a network of European excellence, the MMSH works with teams from several countries, exchanging researchers and knowledge. Built in the Zone d'Aménagement Concerté (a development zone) of Jas-de-Bouffan because land there was available, it is now in the middle of Aix's urban over-flow area, begun in the 1970's and which is now mainly units of social housing.
Nevertheless, the question repeated many times by the journalist and with great insistence, of the relationship between this district of social housing (as it was in 1997 and still is today) and the academic world of research is somewhat misplaced, since the MMSH has no remit to treat the learning difficulties of children from the area, something the news item seems to regret.
