How about taking a fresh look at our city? That’s the aim of the Social Atlas of Caen: to explain and illustrate, through maps, the social realities of yesterday and today. Access to health services, ageing, poverty, religion, sport, employment, housing, tourism… This atlas, which won the CNRS 2023 Crystal Collectif award, depicts people’s relationships with their living environment. Interview with Jean-Marc Fournier, professor of geography (ESO-Caen UMR 6590) and scientific director of the Caen Social Atlas.

What is the Caen Social Atlas?

An atlas is traditionally a compilation of maps presenting the workings of a world, a country, a region or even a city. The Social Atlas of Caen is precisely such an atlas: it illustrates the organization of Caen society and its living spaces, to better understand the changes and mutations of our territory. Maps allow us to see everyday life through different eyes. The very idea of this atlas, which emerged in 2019, is to share the fruits of our social geography research with everyone. The results of our work are likely to be of interest to a very wide audience – the scientific community, elected representatives, regional planning professionals, the people who visit the area on a daily basis… and, more generally, all those who love our city of Caen! This is the very essence of our work as researchers: sharing knowledge to help people think about the future and to be useful to society and the region.

The Caen Social Atlas is now available in digital format, as a book, and now as a traveling exhibition!

Yes, we are indeed multiplying the media and formats to reach as many audiences as possible. The Caen Social Atlas is first and foremost a website, regularly updated with new thematic maps – “Caen as seen by the media”, “Places of worship”, “Caen’s beautiful districts”, “Cycling in Caen”, “The urban and social challenges of the tramway”… to name but a few. All maps are accompanied by short texts and visuals. This digital atlas is part of an open access approach, with public research data made available and a desire to pass on scientific research methods to future generations. In October 2022, we also published a paper version of the Social Atlas of Caen, with contributions from 71 geographers, sociologists and economists. We went out to meet the public at the Musée de Normandie, TURFU Festival, FÊNO and the Salon du livre de Caen. The latest opportunity we’ve seized is the “Jouons cartes sur table” traveling exhibition, which will be set up in 12 districts of the city of Caen from September 2023 to April 2024. It’s really exciting to be able to exploit different ways of disseminating our work.

In 2023, the Social Atlas of Caen will be honored by the CNRS. What does this collective crystal mean for you and your ESO laboratory?

The Caen Social Atlas is actually part of a wider project run by Espaces et Sociétés (ESO), a laboratory based at Angers, Caen, Le Mans, Nantes and Rennes. So it’s not just the Caen Social Atlas that has been honored by the CNRS, but the social atlas project at each of the five sites. The collective crystal rewards teamwork: these atlases would never have seen the light of day without the research support staff who, through their investment, contribute to the success and impact of our work. Laura Pauchard (Research Engineer), who passed away in 2022, receives this distinction posthumously today: her dynamism and rigor were decisive factors in the success of this project. It’s also a tribute to the complementary nature of our profiles and missions – geomatics, cartography, digital humanities, communication… It’s a unifying project across our laboratory, with each and every one of us able to make a contribution to the edifice. This crystal is an honor for us all, and encourages us to pursue this dynamic in favor of knowledge sharing.