DÉCRIPT launches a series of conferences entitled "Monde en crises, civilisations en récits" in partnership with BPI and BULAC.

From the "initiative for a global civilization" advanced by China to the "civilization of civilizations" promoted by Russia, via the multiplication of references by the US administration to the "decline of European civilization", the notion of civilization today permeates many political discourses and the collective imaginaries that underpin them.

This cycle of meetings, organized by Bpi, BULAC and Inalco, aims to shed light on the mechanisms by which new civilizational narratives are produced and mobilized by a growing number of actors in the global space. By looking at the way in which these simultaneously claim to characterize and redefine the organization of societies and that of the world, to integrate or exclude, it is a question of analyzing the representations that structure them as much as the effects they generate. By bringing together researchers in the humanities and social sciences and international practitioners, the challenge is to better understand who articulates these new narratives, and what mechanisms govern their production and dissemination, their reception and their contestation. From this point of view, this cycle proposes to study how the narration of "civilizations" intertwines with conflictual logics and reconfigures both the analysis of global issues, models of governance of societies and, more broadly, the notion of universal norms.

The first event, entitled “Is the Universal Everywhere?”, took place on March 19, 2026, from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the Auditorium of the Center for Languages and Civilizations (event page).

The second event, entitled “Wars and Narratives of Civilizational Collapse,” took place on May 28, 2026, from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the Auditorium of the Center for Languages and Civilizations (event page).

The third event, entitled “Is Ecology Compatible with Power Relations? Environment, Global Politics, and Civilizational Narratives” took place on October 1, 2026, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in the Auditorium of the Center for Languages and Civilizations (event page).  

The fourth event, entitled “Are civilisations myths?” will take place on December 3, 2026 (more information to come).

This cycle is organized as part of the DÉCRIPT research program, which benefits from state aid managed by the Agence nationale de la recherche under France 2030 (ANR-24-RSHS-0002).

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Recorded conferences

You will find all the conferences from the series "Monde en crises, civilisations en récits" on the dedicated YouTube playlist.