baptiste.salmon [at] uvsq.com

       baptistegm.salmon[at] gmail.com

I am a PhD student in social sciences (2022-2025), specializing in land-use planning and adaptation to climate change, at the University of Versailles Saint-Quentin and the University of Paris-Saclay. My thesis is supervised by Yorghos Remvikos and Charlotte da Cunha at CEARC laboratory, and co-funded by BL Evolution, a cooperative consultancy company with a focus on the ecological transition.

In my interdisciplinary thesis, I try to reach a better understanding of existential threats faced by place-attached communities, particularly in rural areas, as they confront significant upheavals such as climate change. My research focuses specifically on three communities, examining how their connection to place intersects with these challenges:

• Greenville (California, USA), which was largely destroyed by the Dixie Fire in 2021 and is in the process of rebuilding;
• Métabief (France), a village where the ski station is scheduled to close around 2035-2040 because of the decrease in snow-cover;
• Fairbourne (Wales, United Kingdom), where the county has suggested the decommission of the village by 2050 in response to sea-level rise, a decision strongly opposed by the residents.

My work therefore focuses on loss, whether material or immaterial, place-attachment, sense-making, and epistemic (in)justice. I mainly mobilise qualitative methods such as interviews, narrative analysis, and the collection of life stories.

Peer-reviewed articles

Salmon, B. (2021), Resilient and adapted futures: The role of common imaginaries when adapting to climate change. Communication & langages, (4), 147-166 (in French). https://hal.science/hal-04162569

Congress presentations and papers

Salmon, B., da Cunha, C., and Remvikos, Y. (2024) (presentation), “We’re starting from scratch, literally from the ashes”: rethinking post-disaster recovery, phenomenological insights from Greenville and the Dixie Fire, 2021. AESOP 2024, Paris (France).

Salmon, B., da Cunha, C., and Remvikos, Y. (2024) (presentation), “Please, do not say climate change!” : when top-down adaptation policies lead to distrust, vulnerability, and loss. Insights from Fairbourne, Wales (UK). Swedish Climate Symposium 2024, Nörkopping (Sweden).

Salmon, B., Vanderlinden, J. P., da Cunha, C., and Remvikos, Y. (2022) (conference paper). Existential risk as a salient concept for transition studies. In New Concepts for Just Transitions, Towards Living Well within Planetary Boundaries. https://hal.science/hal-04243811

Briche, E., Salmon, B., Tailleur, A., and da Cunha, C., (2021) (conference paper), La planification stratégique et territoriale pour l’intégration des solutions d’adaptation fondées sur la nature et la lutte contre l’ilot de chaleur urbain: le cas des PCAET, Meteo France (in French). http://www.meteo.fr/cic/meetings/2022/aic/resumes/climat_urbain_briche.pdf

Member of the current research project

PREFER (2022-2027). “Deciphering the lay ethics of terminal risks: local terminal risks as PRoxiEs For Existential Risks”. Funding entity: European Commission (ERC)

Previous research projects

ACCLIMENVIF (2021). Preliminary qualitative research for the establishment of a local IPCC for the Paris region. Funding entity: French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)

LIFE ARTISAN (2020-2021). Preliminary study of the extent to which Ecosystem-Based Adaptation (EbA) and Nature-based Solutions are currently being implemented through French local climate plans. Funding entity: French Office for Biodiversity

Teaching

Since 2021. Geopolitics of climate change, M1 RSEE (University of Paris-Saclay, UVSQ) [9h]

Since 2022. Tutor for master’s thesis, M2 RSEE (University of Paris-Saclay, UVSQ)

2022-2023. Qualitative research methods, M2 RSEE (University of Paris-Saclay, UVSQ) [18h]

Other projects

La France à +2°C (France in a +2°C world) : art-science project hybridizing science and narrative fiction to feel the effects of future climate change. Six short stories (published) and upcoming podcasts.

Last revision: September 2024