THE ECOLOGICAL SHIFT
A conscious, intentional and radical alignment of life models and behaviors with planetary boundaries in a spirit of social justice
What are the ingredients that promote ecological shifts?
Why and how are more and more individuals, collectives and organizations decide to radically change their perspective of life, their attitude, their behavior, their organizational model?
WEBINAIRE #1
octobre 2024
Retrouvez en vidéo notre premier webinaire qui présentait en équipe une synthèse du projet, son intention initiale, sa génèse, le programme de recherche et les premiers résultats. Nous venions d'arriver en Chine à ce moment.
Kosmogonia is a interdisciplinary and independent action research program.
Its intention is to collect, analyze and disseminate keys to understanding and transformations on the subject of ecological shifts.
We intend to do research differently but with the academic scientific rigor.
Our goal is to make search results more transparent, accessible and especially activatable in the life of organisations and individuals.
For this, it is broken down into a multitude thematic projects, carried jointly by teachers, researchers and field actors, in order to develop of the academic articles, of the educational programs, open studies and interactive formats popularised for the general public, organisations as well as a book.
two targets
RESEARCH
write and publish academic articles to advance research
disseminate the results to nourish new narratives
POPULARIZATION
A unique sociological investigation
Through our interviews, which delve into real life stories, we explore their journey, the conditions and ingredients that led them to change their lives in favor of ecological issues, and to precisely identify the changes, their temporality , their causal links, their complexity.
For most of the pioneers we meet, nothing was written for their path to take this trajectory, yet it has become obvious, often with no possible way back.
This sociological project is vast, complex and sprawling as it opens doors, confirms or refutes prejudices and nourishes us with inspiring encounters. In addition, the large number of qualitative interviews allows us to have an overview of the keys to concrete actions that make it possible to initiate personal shifts at the right level.
Through this odyssey, this moving field of experimentation, we wanted to do research differently and create close bridges between research and societal issues, and thus open up the field of possibilities. Through this major survey, we wish to contribute to a better understanding of the subject of ecological shifts and to nourish new imaginations.
It is a unique project because it includes a 2-year journey without a plane, from France to Japan, in order to meet the pioneers of the ecological transition, people with extraordinary commitments. Because the profiles that interest us are those who act concretely and carry initiatives, beyond pro-ecological behavior.
It is a real odyssey for two which, beyond the common thread of research, questions our relationship to travel, our relationship to time, to slowness, to serendipity, to daring and to adventure.
Our research methodology
The methodology we use is part of a research typology called “grounded theory” which is not based on hypotheses predetermined upstream, but which places the reflection and the progress on the basis of prior collection of exploratory data.
It is an inductive model, in which the theoretical analysis model is gradually emerging thanks to the field data collected (rather than applying a pre-existing analysis model which seeks to respond to hypotheses; research deductive). To do this, we have co-established a broad and open exploratory interview guide, which takes care not to lock the responses into already pre-established trajectories.
We have chosen this model in order to extricate ourselves as much as possible from our biases, prejudices and our activist perspective (which could induce a risk of directing our questions), in order to fully and agnostically embrace the complexity of the subject of ecological shifts. .
We are therefore aiming for a form of sociological maieutics, in order to guarantee a high level of authenticity, neutrality and credibility of the results.
The interviews are transcribed and give rise to analysis-coding carried out as a team, which allowed the thematization of concepts in order to feed an evolving theoretical analysis framework as the interviews are analyzed.
This process is refined over time with new interviews, which add complexity or new ideas, in order to move towards an increasingly successful model.
Two objectives arise from this methodology and a unique associated data set:
Research: write academic articles on the subject of ecological shifts to advance research, provide researchers with new data
Popularization: produce and disseminate accessible formats of the meta-study on the ingredients which promote ecological shifts (book, comics, conferences, workshops, courses, podcast, etc.)
Note that for certain academic articles, we carry out complementary “focused research”, with a dedicated literature review and which may sometimes require additional focused interviews, in order to obtain details or more depth on a given field of study.
Example: The article currently being published on “entrepreneurial masculinities in ecological changeover projects” for which we conducted 2 group interviews and 6 complementary individual interviews.
Collected data
From 2022 to end 2024, we conducted a total of 85 interviews in more than 43 organizations in France, England, Hungary, Turkey, Georgia, Kazakhstan and China.
These qualitative interviews last between 58 and 145 minutes and follow a specific interview guide.
These collected life stories represent a total of 128 hours of audio transcribed into 2500 pages, which form the heart of our research work.
The theoretical model
The ingrained methodology allowed us to open a very dense exploratory phase in 2023, based on a dataset carried out with the first fifty interviews. The life stories of the pioneers we met are particularly fascinating and rich and the analysis promising.
With the research team, we carried out different successive stages of analysis-coding on the basis of a first sample of 900 verbatims (significant and relevant passages of an interview) from 22 interviews, which we carefully classified , allowing us to arrive at a first theoretical framework at the beginning of 2024.
Below is a schematic example of the structuring of our research analysis:
ETAPE 0 - CADRAGE & INTENTION
2022
Définition des intentions en équipe - Rédaction d'une première version des guides d’entretiens - Formation d'Anastasia et Benoit à la conduite d'entretiens qualitatifs inductifs - Veille et sourcing des organisations - Itinéraire international - état de l’art scientifique - Construction des outils de suivi et analyse - Structuration de l’équipe de recherche
ETAPE 1 - LES ENTRETIENS "RÉCIT DE VIE"
Septembre 2022 - Juin 2025
Cette étape représente la base du matériau de recherche, il s'agit de l'ensemble des entretiens réalisés auprès des porteur·ses de projets. En trois années, un total de 91 entretiens individuels et 12 Focus Group ont été réalisés par Anastasia et Benoit dans 8 pays en Eurasie, accompagnés par l'équipe de recherche. Cela correspond à un total de 142 heures d'enregistrement, des centaines de pages de notes ethnographiques et 390 jours d'immersions
ETAPE 2 - CODAGE EXPLORATOIRE
2023
La méthodologie enracinée plébiscité pour ce projet a mené l'équipe de recherche a effectuer des lectures exploratoires des premières données, sans hypothèses pré-établies. Cette méthode est particulièrement dense et riche car elle permet d'ouvrir de nombreux chemins réflexifs en tâchant de réduire tant que possible les angles morts de l'analyse. Au fur et à mesure, des premières catégories, axes et segments sont apparus.
ETAPE 3 - PREMIERS MÉMOS
S2 2023
Suite à la phase de codage exploratoire, des premières conceptualisations théoriques peuvent être établies, reprenant les cheminements redondants que l'on observe au travers l'analyse des récits de vie. On appelle cela des "mémos", ils ouvrent l'opportunité de démarrer une phase de codage plus mature.
ETAPE 4 - CODAGE AXIAL
2024
Sur la base des premières variables et catégories de recherche qui ont émergé lors des phases précédentes (ce sont les "ingrédients des basculements écologiques"), il est dorénavant possible d'effectuer une analyse structurée et d'ouvrir des perspectives de conceptualisation ajustées. C'est aussi le moment où nous avons pu démarrer une méthode hybride quali-quanti avec certaines automatisations et données dynamiques. Ca devient concret !
ETAPE 5 - PONDÉRATION ET VISUALISATION
S2 2024
La structuration du codage axiale a permis de développer une nouvelle structuration d'ensemble, un mémo plus mature et affiné, qui se base sur un total de plus de 3000 verbatims classés et soigneusement sélectionnés. Le matériau évolue et dessine petit à petit des perspectives d'une vision méta qui donnera lieu aux premiers modèles théoriques. Chaque verbatim est associé à une ou plusieurs variables. Un exercice minutieux au long court !
ETAPE 6 - CONCEPTUALISATION DES MODÈLES
2025
C'est début 2025 que nous sommes parvenus à dessiner notre première grand modèle, les deux collines. Ce travail de maïeutique était très apprenant et enrichissant, notamment grâce au développement de différentes vision analytiques dynamiques des données.
The first results
The first results are exciting and very promising. We cannot reveal all the variables to you at the moment because they are still being defined, however we would like to give you a brief overview of what has emerged so far in order to give you an idea of the level of reading that we We are in the process of structuring.
Note: these first results are partial and are based on ongoing coding, carried out on a sample of 22 interviews among the 85 carried out. The overall progress of the analyzes is therefore around 30%. What is presented below is still subject to change.The results shared below are therefore not intended to be used at this time.
We are targeting finalization of all analyzes by September 2025, with a first mature version in April 2025. The target database should contain approximately more than 3,000 verbatims, collected from around a hundred interviews (including 85 carried out in end 2024).
We have defined four areas of research in order to better understand the temporal, evolving and multi-factorial nature of ecological shifts.
4 RESEARCH AXIS
What prepares for the shift ?
ROOTS
THE EFFECTS
How do we recognize the shift ?
What are the benefits and the renunciations?
What process and steps lead to the shift ?
What levers make it possible ?
THE WAY
What makes it last over time?
What enables robustness?
SUSTAINABILITY
These four axes open up around thirty categories, in which a total of 150 variables are allocated.
Below is an overview of the first results based on our three-level classification model:
Here is represented only a reduced sample of all the 150 analysis variables identified.
The variables are therefore the building blocks of the most precise level, categorized within the axes. You have to imagine that we collect dozens or even hundreds of verbatims for each variable. This first overview gives us a first reading of the meta-study on the ingredients which promote ecological shifts.
Hybrid Research (quali-quanti): Given the large quantity of verbatims that we have collected, we are carrying out hybrid research (integrated qualitative and quantitative). In particular, we can already weight each variable with regard to its number of occurrences in the interviews, which allows us to have a very detailed vision of the ingredients of the shifts which influence the most, and those which have a moderating role. or catalyst. We can also identify “bunches of variables”, which together form particularly impactful seesaw levers.
The first analyzes validate certain initial intuitions, which the exploratory methodology gives credibility. Furthermore, we also have many discoveries and learnings from the analyses.
International openness: Since December 2023, we have started international interviews in order to also have an intercultural vision in this project, with the idea of being able to identify the first convergences and/or divergences characteristic of certain cultures, in the optics of carrying out multi-dimensional comparisons.
LE MODÈLE DES DEUX COLLINES
Ces deux années intenses de rencontres et immersions terrains réalisées par Anastasia DEREPPE et Benoit MARIENVAL, accompagnés de l'équipe de recherche Kosmogonia, ont permis d'aboutir à un modèle inédit.
Le modèle des deux collines présente un cheminement en six phases, rythmées par cinq passages clés, mettant en lumière les défis, processus, évolutions et ajustements du phénomène de basculement écologique.
Ce n'est pas un effet de mode, ou un simple "déclic écolo". Le processus sociologique de basculement écologique que l'équipe a longuement observé et modélisé est un phénomène identitaire, profond, et multi-factoriel. C'est un phénomène civilisationnel que nous avons pu observer dans l'ensemble pays que nous avons eu le privilège de traverser durant notre voyage.
Modèle de basculement écologique issu du projet Kosmogonia, co-conçu par Anastasia Dereppe, Benoit Marienval et l'équipe de recherche Kosmogonia (2024). Ne pas utiliser en l'état. ©KOSMOGONIA
> Conditions d'utilisation de ce modèle (à compter de l'été 2025)
Chaque phase est soigneusement documentée, alimentée par des dizaines de variables associées à des centaines de verbatims, issus des entretiens Kosmogonia.
⚠️ Le modèle est encore en cours de finalisation, l'image ci-dessus n'est pas en version définitive.
> Pour en savoir plus : prendre contact avec l'équipe (contact@kosmogonia.org)
Spread the results
Kosmogonia's intention is to build bridges between research and society, to allow sociological results to feed new narratives, to contribute to the evolution of educational curricula and to allow the general public as well as organizations to take hold of them.
The hundred interviews conducted with ecological pioneers allow us to truly grasp the extent of what the ecological shift means. It is about intimate identity, a renewal of the way of being in the world, the evolution of interpersonal relationships, its prospects for evolution, models of success, a sensitivity to the living, renunciations and sometimes radical choices to find meaning.
We are keen to disseminate the results of this research program both in the academic sphere (see the section below on articles), as well as through various deliverables and more popular formats.
All the formats that we have identified as relevant:
Comic strip, graphic book, workshops, games, interactive conferences, podcast, mixtapes, artistic exhibition, artivism, audiovisual...
We will not be able to work on all the formats by ourselves, and we want an enthusiastic and creative collective momentum.
This is why we are keen to open our results to a vast ecosystem of researchers, artists, writers, directors, poets, scientists, facilitators, with the intention of nourishing new narratives on ecological shifts.
Graphic novel, Illustrated book, Comics
NOURISH NEW NARRATIVES
FOR ART AND CULTURE
Conferences, podcast, workshops, courses
SUPPORTING EDUCATION
AND TRAINING PROGRAMS
Academic articles
In parallel with the substantive project on ecological seesaws that we have just presented, the dataset collected is intended to feed research, through the writing of articles published in various specialized academic journals.
Since 2023, the team has written three articles, currently being published. The acceptance times in the world of research are long, the first steps for these first articles should be completed by the end of 2024. We look forward to being able to share the articles with you when they are finalized.
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Publication status: Published June 2024; waiting for feedback from the magazine
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Summary of the subject covered: The article focuses on the approaches of organizations which claim to contribute to societal shifts. The article focuses, through life stories, on two of these organizations which have complementary functions: La Fresque du Climat, the La Bascule archipelago. In addition to its exploratory value, the article highlights two particular phenomena: the emergence of an entrepreneurial approach during a personal "shift" and the contribution of organizations incidentally playing the role of entrepreneurial ecosystems.
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Authors: Céline DEL BUCCHIA, Arnaud STIMEC, José MAILLET, Anastasia DEREPPE, Benoit MARIENVAL
This article was presented at a conference at the RIODD congress in Lille in October 2023 and will be presented again for the 2024 edition.
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Publication status: Published in July 2024 - Awaiting feedback from the journal
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Summary of the subject covered: Know if and how reciprocity can promote ecological solidarity. Drawing on the Kosmogonia life stories of 67 entrepreneurs, employees and volunteers of ecological and solidarity organizations, this study reveals how the experience of generalized reciprocity allows them to practice ecological solidarity by contributing to socio-ecological communities that take into account social-ecological issues. It also describes how certain organizing principles, notably a non-pyramidal structure, collective responsibility and spontaneous responsibility encourage these participants to focus more on the diffusion of ecological solidarity than on the survival of their structure or the exercise of their power.
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Authors: Sandrine FREMEAUX, Céline DEL BUCCHIA, Arnaud STIMEC, Anastasia DEREPPE, Benoit MARIENVAL
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Publication status: Published in April 2024 - Awaiting feedback from the journal
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Summary of the topic covered: While the dominant myth of male power based on a one-dimensional view of a dominant patriarchy in entrepreneurship has long been taken for granted and rarely questioned, recent voices have called for the need to consider the multiple masculinities, with a reformulation of the concept of hegemonic masculinity and a recognition of the need to examine other contexts. In this article we look at a specific context, that of the ecological and social transition, and at a particular type of entrepreneur who decides to move away from a purely commercial approach to contribute to an essential mission, that of helping to bring about major ecological change.
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Authors: Céline DEL BUCCHIA, Arnaud STIMEC, Anastasia DEREPPE, Benoit MARIENVAL
This article will be presented at a conference within RIODD in Brussels in September 2024
Open data
As a reminder, Kosmogonia has two goals:
> Research: writing academic articles on different topics related to ecological shifts
> Popularization: disseminating the results of a meta-study on the ingredients that promote ecological shifts
Concerning the research part, given the size of the dataset collected, Kosmogonia intends to open the dataset to new associated researchers from different backgrounds, in order to advance the field of research on the themes surrounding ecological shifts.
We are currently considering a collective framework to ensure the right way to open this data, and are looking for researcher profiles to embark with us.
The specifications of the interviews identification
To ensure that the collection of life stories is as relevant, complete and inspiring as possible, we have developed a set of specifications based on the identification of organisations working for breakthrough models; these so-called "radical" organisations, in the sense of wanting to act on the root cause of what we want to change, assure us of profiles that have made a profound journey of life transformation and serious alignment.
We are interested in profiles that are very advanced in their knowledge, issues and actions in everyday life. We are not interested in "pro-ecological" behaviour, which is already well documented in scientific literature.
The interviews focus mainly on project leaders and key stakeholders within these organisations.
Occasionally, we also organise focus groups with the beneficiaries of these organisations.
We are particularly interested in five types of organisation: Citizen groups, education, businesses, associations and public institutions.
We also sometimes meet people who are not directly associated with an organisation but who have a unique life path linked to an ecological shift.
THE RESEARCH COLLECTIVE
Anastasia DEREPPE
Initiator of Kosmogonia
Independent researcher
Benoit MARIENVAL
Initiator of Kosmogonia
Independent researcher
Céline DEL BUCCHIA
Searcher and marketing manager
Audencia
Jose MAILLET
Head of the Gaïa school & Researcher
Gaïa
Arnaud STIMEC
University professor
IAE of Nantes