Description
Through stories and testimonies, the project seeks to continue the long history of collaboration between the University of Rennes 2 and the third sector. With the involvement of structures such as the Maison du Quartier La Touche (https://www.mqlt.fr/) and ESS Cargo & CIE, the aim is to map, safeguard and reflect on a socially committed voice.
Why would we want to promote stories? There are three possible answers to this question. Firstly, the spoken word is often ephemeral. While we are submerged in speech all day long, it disappears, leaving little trace. We lose the clarity of the key conversations that witnessed the creation of an initiative, or the events that contributed to giving a cooperation its identity and ethos. Secondly, words, and the stories that shape them, are transmitted very poorly. Words have difficulty crossing domains and spheres of interest. What seems so coherent and convincing in one place risks losing its meaning and driving power in another place with other people.
Finally, collecting stories is a way of highlighting our ways of speaking, and the discourses of our contemporaneity. While diversity, the evolution of a city and changes in lifestyles are leading to new ways of speaking and being in society, there is relatively little ethnographic corpus. Documenting these changes and preserving them is a way of anchoring research in a relationship of reciprocity.
‘Ce qui nous concerne’ adopts an approach of science with and for society. The project plans to create synergies and to carry out real storytelling work. This involves creating a corpus of stories hosted on Nakala (https://nakala.fr/10.34847/nkl.03b6h61y) and open to interactive visits in the virtual world of the UFR Langues de Rennes 2 (https://mondevirtuel.univ-rennes2.fr/@/ce-qui-nous-concerne-2). This corpus will become the starting point for moments of reflection and cooperation where exhibitions, workshops, study days and publications will be organised. We hope that by taking part, we will be able to have a good time, bring oral traditions to life, share experiences of the world, promote our associations, and our places of life and work.
Project financed by:
- Rennes Métropole under the number : 22CO909
- Région Bretagne under the number: SAD_2023_UR2_CQNC_Ce qui nous concerne
- la Zone Atelier Armorique
- Univer.Cité
Associated publications:
- A corpus of Stories by members of civil society in Rennes, Bretagne, France. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/johd.244
- The ‘Ce qui nous concerne’ (‘What matters to us’) project and participative research with Rennes’ civil society narratives: an ecosophical narratology. HTTP: https://www.ecolinguistics-association.org/Journal
News
- 08 October 2026 - What matters to us participates in the Science Festival at the Martenot Hall: https://www.fetedelascience.fr/village-des-sciences-de-rennes-scolaires and https://www.fetedelascience.fr/un-gout-pour-l-entraide-les-small-stories-de-la-solidarite-alimentaire
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Inauguration of the Physico-Virtual Telephone Cabin 19 June 2025 at the Maison de Quartier La Touche: https://www.mqlt.fr/temoignages-de-la-cabine/
- 11-12/02/2025 : Journées d’étude Sémiotique et Participation / https://semioetparti.sciencesconf.org/
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01/11/2024: The project team at the Maison de Quartier La Touche is joined by Jean-Philippe Briand, in charge of the telephone booth / WorkAdventure! liaison!
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01/07/2024: Ce qui nous concerne is the winner of a 1000Eur grant from Univer.Cité to set up a collaborative initiative with the Maison de Quartier La Touche to build a physical-virtual telephone booth between the neighbourhood house and the virtual space WorkAdventure.
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20-24/05/2024: Virtual exhibition of participants' stories in cooperation with the Maison de Quartier La Touche and the virtual world AIR / Espace Langues: https://mondevirtuel.univ-rennes2.fr/@/ce-qui-nous-concerne-2
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03/2024: Dr Eduardo Chavez Herrera joins the What concerns us programme. Funded by the Brittany Region as part of a SAD (Sustainable Attractiveness Strategy) grant. Eduardo Chávez Herrera is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Rennes 2, attached to the LIDILE laboratory and as part of the “Ce qui nous concerne” project. He obtained a doctorate in applied linguistics at the University of Warwick (UK), and is the associate editor of the Spanish-language virtual journal 'Refracción. Revista sobre Lingüística Materialista'. His research interests include interactional linguistics, discourse analysis, semiotics, and the history of ideas in linguistic thought.
- 12/2023: Ce qui nous concerne is the winner, as “Project: 3299 CQNC - SAD” Stratégie d'Attractivité Durable, of post-doctoral funding of 72,845 Eur co-funded by the Brittany region and Rennes 2 University.
- 12/2023 :Ce qui nous concerne is granted the support of the ZAAr ecology project platform: https://osur.univ-rennes.fr/za-armorique
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19/11/2022: Corpus created on Nakala with the first stories to be edited and transcribed: https://nakala.fr/10.34847/nkl.03b6h61y
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20/10/2022: Project awarded an “Allocation à l'installation scientifique” by Rennes Metropole for 10kEur
