UNESCO Bernard Maris Chair
To bring the thought of Bernard Maris to life, to nurture pluralism, to practice interdisciplinarity.
Scientific activity of the Chair
The international chair of citizen economists carried by Sciences Po Toulouse, ALLIance sciences-société (ALLISS) and the Maison des sciences de l'Homme (FMSH) aims to promote an economy rooted in the social sciences, in reality and in the city.
Economist, author, essayist and well-known journalist, Bernard Maris was cowardly assassinated during the attack on Charlie l'Hebdo on January 7, 2015. Student at Pierre-de-Fermat high school then graduated from Sciences Po Toulouse in 1968, Bernard Maris obtained a doctorate in economics at the University of Toulouse 1 in 1975 and was recruited there as a lecturer in 1984. He became a university professor at Sciences Po Toulouse in 1994. He was internationally known for his criticism of 'a mathematical economy too far removed from other human and social sciences and from the concerns of citizens. His books, his radio columns and his satirical articles in Charlie Hebdo (Uncle Bernard) have left their mark on generations of citizens and students.
The Bernard Maris Chair is focused on economic, social and societal changes in the face of technological and organizational innovations. It is formed around a main guest with strong influence, holder of the Chair: Ron Boschma, professor of regional economics at the University of Utrecht. The latter works with Toulouse economists attached to Sciences Po Toulouse and LEREPS, as well as with foreign guests who rotate each year, selected from the best specialists in the human and social sciences contributing to reflections on societal transformations.The scientific activities, conferences and debates of the Chair are organized around annual themes:
- Theme year 2018-2019: sustainable technological transition in the territories;
- Theme year 2019-2020: regional development and socio-economic inequalities;
- Theme year 2020-2021: economic crisis and regional diversification
Bernard Maris, mainstream economics critic
Born in Toulouse in 1946, Bernard Maris was one of the protagonists of French intellectual life at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. Recognized economist, scholar, writer, essayist, journalist, he was assassinated in Paris on January 7, 2015 in the attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, of which he was one of the editors and shareholders. A look back at a striking and atypical personality of contemporary thought, tireless slayer of the deceptions of the dominant economy (mainstream).
Although his international notoriety has been compromised by the inaccessibility of his writings to non-French speakers, Bernard Maris remains one of the most original intellectuals of contemporary France. An actor and thinker of his time, he tirelessly devoted himself to participating in the indispensable examination of ideas, institutions, practices and discourses.
Its protean production is characterized by the systematic deployment of a fine critical mind, always accompanied by strong proposals. It leaves us as a legacy a powerful critique of the economist's postulate of axiological neutrality: the so-called "hard science" that the dominant standard economy claims to be was, for him, only a rhetorical discourse masking the relationships of real power.
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