Conference Risk & Resilience - UGA Risk Institute & University of Swansea

8.30 am Welcome coffee

9.00am WORKSHOP OPENING

Céline CHOLEZ (Risk Institute/PACTE - UGA)
Jonathan BRADBURY (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Swansea University)

9.15am CO-DESIGNING WITH PATIENTS FOR VULNERABILITY REDUCTION

Yan WU & Sarah WILLIAMS (School of Culture and Communication, Swansea University), with Leighton Evans.

Frugal Innovation for digital inclusivity
This research paper is based on the findings from qualitative research into the digital media usage of sensory impaired people in Wales conducted in 2018 and 2022 respectively. By conducting lab-based focus group interviews and follow-up interviews with sight-impaired users, we aim to provide a first-hand account of the user experience to inform digital innovation and inclusivity policy. Firstly, we assess support networks provided to sight-impaired users. Secondly, we set to investigate barriers faced by sight impaired users to the full use of accessible features across devices, software and applications. Finally, we aim to propose to develop consumer-led recommendations to improve inclusive technology. The key findings provide insights into how frugal innovation can be achieved for targeted sight-impaired consumers by focusing on core digital functionalities and enhancing inclusivity and sustainability. 

Ambre DAVAT (GIPSA-lab/PCMD/LIG, UGA), with Fabienne MARTIN-JUCHAT

Co-design in health technologies: the case of a European project aiming at developing an implantable monitoring device for patients living with heart failure
Heart failure is a serious chronic condition that particularly affects the elderly. Due to the ageing population, it is considered a major threat to health care systems. Several research have therefore been conducted in the recent years in order to improve heart failure care thanks to information and communication technologies. One of them is the RealWorld4Clinic project, funded by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology. Its aim was to support the development of an implantable cardiac monitoring device, while addressing the ethical, legal and social issues involved by this new health technology. To achieve this, the consortium brought together physicians, engineers, but also researchers in the humanities and social sciences (including communication sciences). Our role in this project was to co-design an information, education and training module for future patients. From January 2021 to the end of 2022, we developed this module in collaboration with patients and the other members of the consortium. In our presentation, we will look at the results and limits of this co-design experience.

10.15am Coffee break

10.30am CITIZENS, SOCIAL MEDIA AND RESILIENCE

Frederick BOY
(Innovation Labs, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Swansea University)

AI research comes in two flavours: AI as engineering and AI as cognitive & social sciences. The recent emergence of large language models confirms that significant progress has been made on the engineering side, but in cognitive and social sciences, we are still nowhere near an equivalent breakthrough. Yet this is where significant advances are needed for general AI to become a viable proposition for understanding societal change. We position the SUPER-OSKAR© architecture (Sensing Ubiquitous Personal Experience from Real-time Open-Source Keyword seARches) at the intersection of these two avenues by integrating Google trends mining and machine learning to provide crowd-sensing Open Source INTelligence (OSINT) augmentation to decision-makers.The multidisciplinary team develops a practical, language-agnostic solution for detecting the weak footprint of hostile online activities, a central challenge to detecting cyber-attacks, propaganda, disinformation campaigns, economic sanctions, and political pressure by conventional means.
 

Stéphane CARTIER (Pacte/UGA-CNRS)

Population Hazard Environment Inhabitants embeded in scientific design Hopes and distortion of participation

11.30am VALUATING TERRITORIAL RESSOURCES FOR RESILIENCE

Sian REES (School of Culture & Communication, Swansea University)
Natural and Cultural Heritage as Resilience Marketing for Territories (A Case Study of National Parks in England and Wales.

This workshop will explore natural and cultural heritage as resilience marketing in relation to the National Parks of England and Wales.   Case studies of the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads and the Gower Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty will be used to explore how promotional and legal constructs are combined to provide territories with resilience and sustainability in terms of natural and cultural heritage.
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Natacha SEIGNEURET (Pacte, UGA)

We examine how three major projects to regenerate the banks of the Rhône and Saône rivers in Lyon’s metropolitan area have evolved in recent years to increase the resilience of the river network. The originality of the most recent project, Rives de Saône, lies in the dual objective pursued by the Metropole de Lyon : An environmental and resilient project, with a return to the original character of the riverbanks through the restoration of flora and fauna; and at the same time, an artistic project, "River movie", using contemporary art to enhance the green and blue infrastructure, and selected works of art to encourage awareness of the fragility of biodiversity.

12.30 : Buffet
 

2.00pm DIALOGUE SCIENCE/SOCIETY

Pôle Alpin Risques Naturels (PARN)

3.00pm PUBLIC POLICIES AND COMMUNITIES' MARGINALIZATION

Alan COLLINS (Politics, Philosophy & International Relations, Swansea University)

Resilience and the threat of indigeneity: lessons from the Arctic Resilience Report

This paper is concerned with showing how resilience is a problematic term for indigenous populations. It argues that resilience rarefies certain tropes in indigeneity that makes the term indigenous an insecure identity, and it shows that when used as a policy tool, resilience can marginalise indigenous knowledge as a solution to the challenge resilience purports to overcome. The case study is the indigenous communities in the Arctic and the use of resilience as a solution to the challenges facing communities in the Arctic by the Arctic Council. 

Maelle NICAULT (Pacte, UGA)

Since 1978, development public policies have tended to reduce social inequalities and to guarantee the sustainability of human activities in mountainous territories of Reunion Island. Our study, based on a combined approach of institutional and capability analysis, shows however that if these policies have allowed the growth of tourism activities, or the catching up of equipment on average, these development policies do not however allow to increase the resilience of the territories and their populations. Based on three case studies on water management in Mafate, the presentation will show how public policies increase in vulnerability of the SES and perpetuate marginalization of cultural communities in a post-colonial territory.

4.00pm Coffee break
 

4.15pm GRASSROOTS INNOVATION AND RESILIENCE

Krijn PETERS (School of Social Sciences, Swansea University)
Assessing Appropriate Technologies/Frugal Innovations through Multi-Criteria Analysis

Appropriate Technologies, or frugal innovations, aim to incorporate contextual social, environmental, economic, and technical factors into project design and implementation to reduce the risk of ill-fitting projects in low-income countries. Articulating what achieving “appropriateness” looks like is project specific, requiring a framework that provides clarity and guidelines. A Multi-Criteria Analysis can assess Appropriate Technology tenets through the lens of all project interest groups’ contrasting values, resulting in a fair display of what the groups deem as appropriate, and how project options and decisions stack up to this. In this paper an MCA tested through a case study of a hand tool production project options in rural Liberia, producing a coherent comparison of project options as well as outlining their weaknesses and strengths with respect to appropriateness. The MCA was effective in providing a cost-effective, efficient, and reliable method to assess levels of appropriateness, and could be the starting point for a universally adaptable Appropriate Technology tool for development projects.

Philippe GARNIER (AE&CC-CRAterre, UGA)
Transcending and transforming perceived vulnerabilities into resilience capacities for reconstruction of housing after the 2010 earthquake of Port-au-Prince in Haiti

Haiti was considered (and is still) as a very vulnerable and fragile country not in capacity to withstand and recover by itself from the great earthquake of January 2010 that severely struck its capital and its surrounding claiming the life of more than 220,000 haitians destroying or impacting about 290,000 buildings, and strongly affecting its limited resources. The international community decided to provide huge assistance to the country through different chanels and projects. At the same time, CRAterre NGO and AE&CC lab with 3SR were sollicitated to provide support to plateform of local NGOS by a German NGO and associating resaerch funds to support the reconstruction process based on local building cultures, localisation and grassroot approach. The challenging approach that we are going to present has given some worthwhile results and have social impact in the long term. It illustrates how innovations based on local knowledge and practices, mobilising grassroot capacities and ressources associated with mutltidisciplinary research and research-action can enable local stakeholders in the reconstruction proces and yielding to massive changes in comparison to conventional approach.
 

5.15pm CONFERENCE CLOSURE