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Participation in the IFR’s UTELIB subject group: Toulouse Freedom Studies Unit
Coordinator: Joël ANDRIANTSIMBAZOVINA
The Federative Research Institute (IFR) developed a platform under its aegis called the Toulouse Freedom Studies Unit (UTELIB), as a forum and for multidisciplinary research on freedom.

The UTELIB  UTELIB is open to all university lecturers and all research laboratory staff of Toulouse Capitole University. It is also involved in maintaining relationships with other laboratories at the Toulouse Political Studies Institute and other Toulouse universities.
Its principal activity is to disseminate, in both paper and digital formats, studies on freedoms, and organise annual debates on the topics researched.
 

ISSUES AND OBJECTIVES

 

The conquest, development, preservation and refinement of freedoms has punctuated human history and continues to shape politics, institutions and society.
Recent French, European and international events have shown the vitality and inexhaustible nature of such freedoms.
Freedom is at the heart of all of society’s issues, whether they relate to the Arab Spring, immigrants and refugees, the French debate on anti-Semitism, counter-terrorism, the environment, euthanasia, the death penalty, gender equality, citizenship, personal data protection, net neutrality, audio-visual and online communications, bioethics, and many more.
Freedoms encompass numerous social, human and scientific disciplines.
Without trying to be exhaustive, their changes appear in history, their provision and sanction are set out in law, their scope and value described in philosophy, society’s knowledge of them forms part of sociology, and their position in politics is analysed in political science.
In current research, each human and social science, without exception, studies freedom without necessarily embracing any other discipline.
This piecemeal approach to studies in freedoms is today a factor in the atrophy of humanism and humanities.
Now at a time when globalisation is favouring the economic and technical aspects of societal life, it seems appropriate to rejuvenate the status of humanism and humanities.
The strengthening of humanism can be partly achieved by interweaving the different human and social sciences.
The study of freedoms facilitates this linkage.
The UTELIB seeks to mobilise and unite the expertise and energy of lecturers and researchers who are interested in freedoms.
Without detracting from the independence of other disciplines which is conducive to their further research, the UTELIB aims to gather under the one banner the researchers and lecturer-researchers who work individually on topics relating to freedoms.
The UTELIB intends to establish connections between them so that multidisciplinary research on freedoms can emerge and make Toulouse a flagship on the multidisciplinary study and research of freedoms.
To ensure greater visibility of its research results within the French-speaking world and beyond, the UTELIB has established a paper and digital publication.
Entitled Libertés, it will disseminate the studies on freedoms in French and will include abstracts in English and Spanish.
Once a year, a round-table talk on a particular subject discussed in the publication will be organised in Toulouse.

 

CHARACTERISTICS

  • Purpose of the publication : Reflections and expositions on topics about freedom in society (France/Europe/world) taken from different perspectives (legal, philosophical, historical, sociological, theoretical, social, economic, etc.).
  • Length: approx. 350 pages per issue.
  • Frequency: annual
  • Media: Paper and internet


LEAD SUBJECT

Each issue will devote 60% to 70% of its pages, as well the cover headline and spine, to a multidisciplinary general theme.


VARIETIES

 

Diverse and open studies dealing with issues of freedoms.
These will be chosen from among the articles sent to the UTELIB or written by members of the editorial committee.

 

ZOOM

Two or three articles on current events chosen from among the articles sent to the UTELIB.


READINGS

Some bibliography notices.

 



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