DCIE (2010-2013)

Dominique Avon, history professor at the University of Maine, attached to Western History Research Center (CERHIO), UMR CNRS 6258.

Bringing together human groups in order to make a community is a complex construction and phenomenon combining elements of identification and distinction: language, geographical origin, gender, social class, religion etc. This phenomenon is never static, it experiences accelerated forms of recomposition in the contemporary world. It raises, in return, hopes or fears, creative projects or tensions. They are reflected in discussions and initiatives taking place at the state level, as well as at the infra or supra-state level within the diversified European societies. In a multidisciplinary perspective, we have undertaken to gather the research effort of several labs from the Region Pays de la Loire over the common question of “civic dynamics”, articulated on two convergent axes “secularism and religions”; “citizenships and identities.” Our combined expertise enables us to place our work in a comparative context of a wider diachronic perspective (embracing the great periods of history) and synchronic (focusing on the Europe studies but open to other cultural horizon: Mediterranean and Atlantic mainly).