The latest in the series of CIST conferences, this 5th international conference spotlights the concept of population as a central issue in the debates within territorial sciences. The concept of population, which is central to demography and biology and more marginal for other disciplines, involves the grouping together of individual entities. Depending on the particular approach used, the preferred criterion for aggregation will be the social, territorial, biological, etc., with timescales and observation scales varying accordingly. Linking together population, time and territory in a transdisciplinary and international perspective is the main goal of this conference; beyond the fact that it represents a theoretical and methodological breakthrough, the diversity of the proposed thematic sessions is a clear sign that this trio is at the heart of contemporary issues.
This is a completely different way of making use of the dichotomy between the group and the individual, the social body as a whole and its most basic constituent elements, a different approach that would have an impact in terms of what is referred to as the population.
Michel Foucault, “Security, Territory, Population”, Lecture at the Collège de France on January 25th, 1978, « Sécurité, territoire, population », Leçon au Collège de France du 25 janvier 1978
