Quentin Deluermoz
Professor of History at University Paris Cité and director of the research unit ICT-Europe in the world, is a specialist social and cultural history of orders and disorders in 19th century (France, Europe, empires) and of the epistemology of History and Social Sciences. Its publications include : Commune(s), 1870-1871. Une traversée des mondes au XIXe siècle, Paris, Seuil, 2020 (eng translation. forth) ; with P. Singaravelou, A Past of Possibilities : a History of what it could have been, Yale UP, 2021 ; Le Crépuscule des révolutions, 1848-1871(Paris, T3 « Histoire de France Contemporaine », Seuil, 2014). He also edited or co-edited Histoires globales des révolutions (with L. Bantigny, L. Jeanpierre, B. Gobille, E. Palieraki, Paris, La Découverte, 2023), D'ici et d'ailleurs. Histoires globales de la France contemporaine (Paris, La Découverte, 2021) and the special issue "l'expérience sensible" of the Journal L'Homme-revue française d'anthropologie (With H. Mazurel, C. Chamois, 2023/4). With other colleagues he also created in 2015 the interdisciplinary and artistic review Sensibilités, Histoire, Sciences Sociale et critique.
History of Past Possibilities and Counterfactual Histories: A Tool for a "Post-Truth Era"?
It may seem surprising to evoke counterfactual reasoning (what would have happened if?) as a relevant tool for our present. This talk will show that the current proliferation of uchronic cultural productions is first and foremost a sign of the changes in our relationship with the past. Then, using the example of the European revolutions of 1848, it will show that, under certain conditions, this mode of reasoning can be an effective analytical tool in the social sciences. These uses of the non taken paths in history, impregnated with fiction, do then not necessarily go against the search for truth in history. In particular, it allows us to break with linear and teleological approaches. And contrary to historical falsifications, it can increase the reflexivity of the researcher. Finally, when used in this way, it can also provide a forum for democratic debate on history: the presentation will conclude with a presentation of pedagogical experiments carried out in secondary schools in the Paris region in 2020-2022.
Quentin Deluermoz
Professor of History at University Paris Cité and director of the research unit ICT-Europe in the world, is a specialist social and cultural history of orders and disorders in 19th century (France, Europe, empires) and of the epistemology of History and Social Sciences. Its publications include : Commune(s), 1870-1871. Une traversée des mondes au XIXe siècle, Paris, Seuil, 2020 (eng translation. forth) ; with P. Singaravelou, A Past of Possibilities : a History of what it could have been, Yale UP, 2021 ; Le Crépuscule des révolutions, 1848-1871(Paris, T3 « Histoire de France Contemporaine », Seuil, 2014). He also edited or co-edited Histoires globales des révolutions (with L. Bantigny, L. Jeanpierre, B. Gobille, E. Palieraki, Paris, La Découverte, 2023), D'ici et d'ailleurs. Histoires globales de la France contemporaine (Paris, La Découverte, 2021) and the special issue "l'expérience sensible" of the Journal L'Homme-revue française d'anthropologie (With H. Mazurel, C. Chamois, 2023/4). With other colleagues he also created in 2015 the interdisciplinary and artistic review Sensibilités, Histoire, Sciences Sociale et critique.
History of Past Possibilities and Counterfactual Histories: A Tool for a "Post-Truth Era"?
It may seem surprising to evoke counterfactual reasoning (what would have happened if?) as a relevant tool for our present. This talk will show that the current proliferation of uchronic cultural productions is first and foremost a sign of the changes in our relationship with the past. Then, using the example of the European revolutions of 1848, it will show that, under certain conditions, this mode of reasoning can be an effective analytical tool in the social sciences. These uses of the non taken paths in history, impregnated with fiction, do then not necessarily go against the search for truth in history. In particular, it allows us to break with linear and teleological approaches. And contrary to historical falsifications, it can increase the reflexivity of the researcher. Finally, when used in this way, it can also provide a forum for democratic debate on history: the presentation will conclude with a presentation of pedagogical experiments carried out in secondary schools in the Paris region in 2020-2022.