Séminaire UNKNOWNPATH 2025-2026. Epistemic communities

Séminaire UNKNOWNPATH 2025-2026

As part of the Horizon CY Initiative project coordinated by LT2D research centre

Epistemic Communities

As part of the UNKNWONPATH project (CY Initiative Horizon funding), this seminar aims to lay the foundations for a reflection on the epistemology of science, with a focus this year on the epistemic communities. 

The question of the place of science in our contemporary societies is now associated with issues of trust, conflict and democracy. Debates of a purely scientific nature are often drowned out by controversies of various kinds (political, ideological, economic, security-related, etc.), as we demonstrate in the UNKNOWNPATH project on the specific case of the Conferences of Parties on Climate (COP).

Communities of practice, communities of knowledge and communities of opinion are forming around each issue. Traditionally, epistemic communities are those of experts on a given subject. However, we can now observe that in very open public spaces, especially on the internet, the truths of various communities are claimed to be epistemologically valid for actors other than experts alone. Citizens, activists and politicians form today's new epistemic communities. 

With this working hypothesis in mind, this seminar aims to provide food for thought to enrich the concept of epistemic communities and make it operational in the face of the changing realities we are experiencing. To this end, the seminar sessions will range from classical theories to new concepts, including technical issues to be taken into account when characterising epistemic communities.

• 12 November 2025, 10h-12h         Luciana Radut-Gaghi 

“Toward the trans-epistemic communities - voyage through the classical theories”

• 3 December 2025, 10h-12h         Andreea Mogos 

“Trust and distrust in epistemic communities”

• 28 January 2026, 14h-16h        Dimitris Kotzinos 

“Recognizing and teaching disinformation"

• 4 March 2026, 10h-12h        Chahab Nastar and Noor Alkhadhar

“WeLearn: an AI-powered pedagogical platform built to support Education for Sustainable Development. Potential applications within the UNKNOWNPATH project”

• 13 April 2026                 Axel Boursier 

“Contestation of the epistemic truth”

• 22 May 2026, 14h-16h        Linda Benraïs

“Negociation, polarisation and soft power : what lessons for governance?”

• June 2026                 Fabrice Cavarretta 

“Toward a scholarship of optimal and insatiable theories of action”