Description du projet
Le rôle du bois dans l’industrialisation européenne
De nouvelles données ont récemment révélé le rôle crucial du bois dans l’industrialisation, et l’augmentation de sa consommation dans des secteurs clés. Les chercheurs ont toutefois souvent négligé l’importance de ce matériau. Financé par le Conseil européen de la recherche, le projet INWOOD entend combler cette lacune en étudiant le rôle du bois pendant la période d’industrialisation ainsi que l’impact de l’industrialisation sur les forêts et sur l’utilisation du bois, en se concentrant sur l’Europe entre 1870 et 1914. Inspiré par le récent débat soulevé par la crise écologique, le projet analysera les changements de la consommation de bois en tenant compte des nouvelles demandes industrielles. Il évaluera également l’impact de l’industrialisation sur les personnes les plus impliquées dans l’exploitation des forêts et étudiera l’évolution du paysage forestier en termes d’étendue de la couverture forestière et de ses caractéristiques.
Objectif
INWOOD studies industrialisation through the most important pre-industrial resource: wood. Scholarship on industrialisation has concentrated on the introduction and spread of new energy sources and materials, paying scant attention to the pre-existing resources. However, available data shows that wood was fundamental in the key sectors driving industrialisation, while its consumption increased during this process.
INWOOD analyses the role that wood played during industrialisation and the impact of industrialisation on the actors and sectors most involved in wood use, with a focus on Europe during the first globalisation (1870-1914). Inspired by current debates on ecological crisis and energy transition, the project pioneers an interdisciplinary and multi-scale approach to analyse the links between the following interrelated issues:
Economic dynamics on a macro scale: the changes in wood consumption in relation to industrial demands, but also the spread of alternative energy sources and materials; the transformation triggered by industrial technology in the geography of wood flows and in the logistics of the wood supply chain.
Social dynamics on a micro scale: the impact of changes in the wood economy on the populations living close to the woodlands, in both the areas that were central before industrialisation and those that became central because of it; the choices made by actors involved in the exploitation of woodlands when faced with these developments.
Ecological dynamics on multiple scales: the evolution of the European forest cover in terms of reforestation in some regions and deforestation in others; the main qualitative changes in the forest landscape in terms of tree species composition, age and density.
INWOOD integrates sources and analytical methods to change the way scholars understand industrialisation and to provide the historical context for present-day debate about the role of forests in climate change mitigation and biodiversity preservation.
Champ scientifique
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsrenewable energy
- humanitieshistory and archaeologyhistory
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesclimatologyclimatic changes
- social sciencessociologyglobalization
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesforestry
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Thème(s)
Régime de financement
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsInstitution d’accueil
10124 Torino
Italie