Understanding Soil Movement and Climate Risks to the Home: Perspectives from France and Switzerland

For several years now, the enormity of global warming has been evidenced by record temperatures worldwide. In all scenarios for greenhouse gas emissions produced by human activities, the sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimated last year that the global surface temperature will increase by 1.5°C by the early 2030s (1). As a governance strategy, therefore, “cooling down the Earth” (2) continues to raise many questions and uncertainties. While these have been explored at international level for several decades in relation to the connections between housing and the environment (3), understanding these risks at individual household level is now becoming a pressing matter.

This paper presents a joint look at ways of dealing with the climate risks associated with the shrink-swell of clay soils to homes in France and Switzerland. Based on an intercultural survey (Némoz (ed.), 2024), the REFECTED study offers a comparative approach to both residential and institutional challenges. We will present the forms of vulnerability experienced and the extent to which changes, continuities and conflicts can contribute to a reassessment of the concept of “home”.

References:

(1). Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2023, Sixth Assessment Report.

(2). Aykut S. C., 2020, Climatiser le monde, Versailles, Ed. Quae.

(3). Nemoz S., 2023, « Sustainable Housing : International Relations Between Housing and the Environment Revisited » in Kassiola J.J., Luke T. W., The Palgrave Handbook of Environmental Politics and Theory, Palgrave Macmillan, pp.345-366.