Florence Graezer Bideau
EPFL CDH DHI SCI-CDH-FGB
CM 2 270 (Centre Midi)
Station 10
1015 Lausanne
+41 21 693 02 36
Office:
CM 2 270
EPFL
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SCI-CDH-FGB
Web site: Web site: https://habitat.epfl.ch/
+41 21 693 02 36
Office:
CM 2 270
EPFL
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EDAR-ENS
+41 21 693 02 36
Office:
CM 2 270
EPFL
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VPA-AVP-DLE
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Web site: Web site: https://go.epfl.ch/phd-edar
Fields of expertise
Epistemology and history of anthropology
Popular culture and cultural policy
Resistance and Innovation in urban space
Critical heritage studies
UNESCO heritage processes in China, Malaysia and Singapore
Intangible Cultural Heritage in Switzerland
Chinese New Towns
Popular culture and cultural policy
Resistance and Innovation in urban space
Critical heritage studies
UNESCO heritage processes in China, Malaysia and Singapore
Intangible Cultural Heritage in Switzerland
Chinese New Towns
Biography
Adjunct Professor at the College of Humanities and at the School of Architecture, EPFLHead of the Heritage, Anthropology and Technologies Research Group (HAT), EPFL
PhD in History and Civilization (EHESS, Paris)
Director of the Minor in Area and Cultural Studies (MACS) between 2012 and 2016
Visiting Professor at the Department of Architecture and Design, Politecnico di Torino between 2015 and 2021
Associated researcher at the China Room Research Group and South China-Torino Collaboration Lab, Politecnico di Torino
Associate member of the Laboratoire d’anthropologie culturelle et sociale (LACS), UNIL
Member of the EDAR committee (Doctoral Program Architecture and Sciences of the City) at the School of Architecture, Civil and Environment Engineering in EPFL
Co-responsible of the Research Committee Héritage et Patrimoine (CR 44) of the Association Internationale des Sociologues de Langue Française (AISFL)
Florence Graezer Bideau trained as an anthropologist and a sinologist, and received her PhD in History and Civilization in 2005. Before joining the Centre for Area and Cultural Studies (CACS) at EPFL in 2010, she was a lecturer in anthropology at the University of Lausanne, where she taught courses in cultural theory and fieldwork methodology. She is Senior Lecturer and Senior Scientist at the College of Humanities where she teaches area studies, anthropology of China, critical heritage studies and urban studies. She has been acting as Director of the Minor in Area and Cultural Studies between 2012 and 2016 and she is currently a member of the EDAR committee (Doctoral Program Architecture and Sciences of the City) at the School of Architecture, Civil and Environment Engineering in EPFL. Since 2015, Florence has also been Visiting Professor at the Department of Architecture and Design, Politecnico di Torino, Italy. Her fields of expertise include anthropology of China, urban sociology, modes of sociability and governmentality.
Florence’s research is on the relation between culture and power (making of cultural policy in China; emergence of maker movement (makerspaces) and politics of innovation in China), heritage issues (process of heritagization and multiculturalism in Malaysia and Singapore; implementation of the UNESCO Convention for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage in Switzerland; historic urban landscape in heritage policy of Beijing, Rome and Mexico City), and the making of the city (informal resistances toward the violence of urbanism in Caracas, Chennai and Guangzhou; uses of public spaces in Chinese new towns).
Awards
2022 : Best Teaching Award : College of Humanities, Social Sciences and Humanities Program
2022 : Koos Bosma Prize in Planning History Innovation : International Planning History Society (IPHS)
Publications
Infoscience publications
Publications
Journal Articles
Cultural Heritage and Urban Landscapes: an Anthropological Approach
World Architecture. 2025.Dominant discourses framing the reuse of industrial heritage in the context of mega-events: a relationship matrix approach
Built Heritage. 2024. DOI : 10.1186/s43238-024-00154-z.Industrial heritage in the hosting of mega-events: assessing the potential for urban redevelopment and social change?
Built Heritage. 2024. DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s43238-024-00157-w.Towards a critical anthropology of the (de)creative turn in heritage
Anthropological Theory. 2024. DOI : 10.1177/14634996241227272.Heritage as new social engineering in China: (De)colonial avenues
American Anthropologist. 2024. DOI : 10.1111/aman.13950.China’s extended urbanization driven by the 'consumption city' in the context of financialized ecological civilization
Transactions in Planning and Urban Research. 2022. DOI : 10.1177/27541223221101720.Le maker, construction d’une figure politique de l’innovation en Chine urbaine
EspacesTemps.net. 2020. DOI : 10.26151/espacestemps.net-t0f8-r859.Developing interdisciplinary and intercultural skills in engineers through short-term field experiences
Informacios Tarsadalom. 2020. DOI : 10.22503/inftars.XX.2020.2.1.Tourisme et patrimoine dans la ville de Malacca, Malaisie: un couple bien assorti?
Ethnologies. 2016. DOI : 10.7202/1041588ar.Challenging the notion of Heritage? Introduction
Tsantsa. 2014.Multiculturalism, cosmopolitanism, and making heritage in Malaysia: a view from the historic cities of the Straits of Malacca
International Journal Of Heritage Studies. 2012. DOI : 10.1080/13527258.2011.609997.Inventorier les ‘traditions vivantes’. Approches du patrimoine culturel immatériel dans le système fédéral suisse
Ethnographiques.org. 2012.Conference Papers
Anthropological Insights into the Cultural Heritage and Urban Landscape
2024. 4th International Forum on Engineering Education & 2024 Tsinghua Design Science Conference, Shougang, Beijing, PRC, 2024-11-28 - 2024-11-29.Chair - Discussant: Panel Patrimoines, collectionneurs et transmetteurs
2024. Chinese Heritage Arenas. Territories and Heritage Practices in Contemporary Sinophone Worlds, Paris, France, 2024-11-21 - 2024-11-22.Les politiques du patrimoine : Archive documentaire et registre Mémoire du Monde de l'UNESCO – L'exemple du Montreux Jazz Festival
2024. Patrimoine(s) en question(s) – Rencontres de la FFA pour l'art 2024, Saint-Maurice, Suisse, 2024-10-10.Intersecting trajectories: Cultural heritage policies and rural revitalisation in China
2024. European Association for Chinese Studies, 25th biennial Conference 2024, Tallinn, Estonia, 2024-08-27 - 2024-08-30.Des héritages et des patrimoines : Critique et production des savoirs
2024. XXIIe Congrès international des sociologues de langue française (AISLF), Ottawa, Canada, 2024-07-08 - 2024-07-12.Héritage, patrimoine, crise des savoirs
2024. XXIIe Congrès international des sociologues de langue française (AISLF), Ottawa, Canada, 2024-07-08 - 2024-07-12.Avalanche risks management as intangible cultural heritage
2023. 19th IUEAS-WAU World Anthropology Congress, Marginalities, uncertainties, and world anthropologies: enlivening past and envision future, New Delhi, India, October 14-20, 2023.Mega-Event Reinforced Industrial Heritage Transformation: The making of public space between narratives and practices
2022. TICCIH 2022 Industrial Heritage Reloaded, Montreal, Montreal, Canada, August 28 - September 3, 2022.Vous avez dit: “traditions vivantes urbaines” en Suisse?
2019. Colloque international: Une approche interdisciplinaire du patrimoine culturel immatériel, Museum Fünf Kontinente, Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München, Deutschland, Mars 7-8, 2019.Short-term field study programmes for developing interdisciplinary skills in engineering education
2019. SEFI 47th Annual Conference. European Society of Engineering Education. "Varietas delectat...Complexity is the new normality"", Budapest, Hungary, September 16-19, 2019.Urban Scars: From invisible to visible – In Beijing and Mexico City
2017. V Congreso Internacional Cidades Criativas, Porto, PORTUGAL, January 25-27, 2017. p. 257 - 268.Making the city: re-assembling spaces of manufacturing
2017. CHI2017.Reviews
Beijing from below stories of marginalized lives in the capitals center by Harriet Evans
The China Quarterly. 2021. DOI : 10.1017/S0305741021001272.Places in Common: An Ethnography of Public Gatherings in China
China Perspectives. 2021.Théâtres d’Asie à l’oeuvre. Circulation, expression, politique par Hélène Bouvier et Gérard Toffin (éds)
Anthropos. 2014.Asian Theatres at work. Circulation, expression, politics
Anthropos. 2014.Books
Governing Heritage and Creativity: Frictions, Avenues and Questions
Siracusa: Lettera Ventidue.Porter le temps. Mémoires urbaines d'un site horloger
Genève: MētisPresses.Realtime: making digital China
Lausanne: EPFL Press.Comparing habitats: Reframing comparison in the “Post-disciplinary” era
http://contourjournal.org.Politiques de la tradition. Le patrimoine culturel immatériel
Lausanne: Presses Polytechniques et universitaires romandes.Patrimoine culturel: constitutions, conflits et conventions
Zürich: Tsantsa.Les vocabulaires locaux du patrimoine. Traductions, négociations et transformations.
Münster/Berlin: LIT Verlag.La danse du yangge. Culture et politique dans la Chine du XXe siècle
Paris: La Découverte.Per un'antropologia non egemonica. Il Manifesto di Losanna
Milano: Elèuthera.Manifeste de Lausanne. Pour une anthropologie non hégémonique
Montréal: Liber.Theses
Reconfiguring the Mountains: Mechanisms and Practices of Chongli's Extended Urbanization Driven by the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics
Lausanne, EPFL, 2025. DOI : 10.5075/epfl-thesis-11039.The authentic city: uses of industrial heritage in large-scale regeneration projects, a comparative analysis
Lausanne, EPFL, 2025. DOI : 10.5075/epfl-thesis-10851." Anomalies urbaines " : un urbanisme d'occupation à Hong Kong et Caracas. Enquête, théorie et méthode
Lausanne, EPFL, 2021. DOI : 10.5075/epfl-thesis-7972.Liminality, Ephemerality, and Marginality with Impact Makerspaces in the Chinese Urban Fabric: Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing, and Addis Ababa
Lausanne, EPFL, 2020. DOI : 10.5075/epfl-thesis-7765.La mémoire collective et l'espace. Traces, récits et expériences autour d'un paysage urbain romain
Lausanne, EPFL, 2020. DOI : 10.5075/epfl-thesis-10263.Singularité des slums: Production de l'espace dans la ville indienne
Lausanne, EPFL, 2019. DOI : 10.5075/epfl-thesis-9565.Where is my place? Native home and culture in Iranian immigrants' homemaking
Lausanne, EPFL, 2017. DOI : 10.5075/epfl-thesis-6773.Book Chapters
S’engager et transmettre en féministe : pour une éthique du care à l’université
Engagements: Penser la responsabilité de l'anthropologie avec Ellen Hertz; Neuchâtel: Éditions Alphil - Presses universitaires suisses, 2024.Pluralizing creativities in heritage governance
Governing Heritage and Creativity: Frictions, Avenues and Questions; Siracusa: Lettera Ventidue, 2023.The Governance of creative heritage and neo-aesthetics: between entertainment and politics in Asia
Governing Heritage and Creativity: Frictions, Avenues and Questions; Siracusa: Lettera Ventidue, 2023.Beijing Olympics as Drivers of New Places for Consumption: Promotion of New Lifestyle and Cultural Heritage
Beijing22 - Speculative Grounds: Positions on Beijing's transformation; Zurich: tria publishing platform, Zurich–Beijing, 2022.Une pluralité des formes patrimoniales pour une reconnaissance sur les listes de l'UNESCO, 2002-2020
Porter le temps. Mémoires urbaines d'un site horologer; Genève: MētisPresses, 2021.Re-creating Memories of Gulou: Three Temporalities and Emotions
People-Centered Methodologies for Heritage Conservation: Exploring Emotional Attachment to Historic Urban Places; London and New York: Routledge, 2021.The Social Life of Heritage-Making: Cultural Representations and Frictions
The Heritage Turn in China. The Reinvention, Dissemination and Consumption of Heritage; Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020.Le rôle des experts dans la création de l’inventaire du patrimoine culturel immatériel en Suisse
Le patrimoine culturel immatériel au seuil des sciences sociales. Actes du colloque de Cerisy-la-Salle, septembre 2012; Paris: Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l’homme, 2020.Planning: from model to modules
Realtime: making digital China; Lausanne: EPFL Press, 2020.Comparing habitats. Reframing comparison in the “post - disciplinary” era
Comparing habitats: Reframing comparison in the “Post-disciplinary” era; Lausanne: Contour journal for interdisciplinary research in architecture, design and planning, 2019.Shaping Urbanity: Politics and Narratives
The City after Chinese New Towns: Spaces and Imaginaries from Contemporary Urban China; Basel: Birkhäuser, 2019.Historic Urban Landscape in Beijing: The Gulou Project and Its Contested Memories
Chinese Heritage in the Making: Experiences, Negotiations and Contestations; Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2018.Resistance to places of collective memories: A rapid Transformation Landscape in Beijing
The Palgrave Handbook of Urban Ethnography; London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. p. 259 - 278.Regards sur les politiques du PCI en Suisse
Patrimoine culturel immatériel; Liège: Presses universitaires de Liège, 2017. p. 317 - 328.Jeux de pouvoirs, jeux d’échelles, jeux d’images: trois terrains, une ligne d’horizon
Mélanges en l'honneur de Mondher Kilani; Lausanne: BNS Press, 2015. p. 43 - 58.Traditions vivantes, une catégorie bonne à penser ? Le cas de la Suisse
Les vocabulaires locaux du patrimoine. Traductions, négociations et transformations; Münster/Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2014. p. 123 - 144.Relocaliser les discours du "patrimoine"
Les vocabulaires locaux du patrimoine. Traductions, négociations et transformations; Münster/Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2014. p. 9 - 31.Travelling sur le processus d’exclusion de l’inventaire des traditions vivantes en Suisse : enjeux et raisons d’un (out)casting
Hors-champs; Neuchâtel: Musée d'ethnographie de Neuchâtel, 2013. p. 112 - 118.George Town (Penang) Malaisie. Une capitale régionale consacrée ‘ville du patrimoine mondial’
Capitales et patrimoine à l’ère de la globalisation/ Capital Cities and Heritage in the globalization Era; Québec: Presses de l'Université de Laval, 2012. p. 161 - 189.Identifying ‘living traditions’ in Switzerland: Re-enacting federalism through the application of the UNESCO Convention
Heritage Regimes and the State; Göttingen: Göttingen University Press, 2012. p. 303 - 325.La Svizzera : una buona allieva nel processo di inventorio del PCI ? (La Suisse : bonne élève du processus d’inventaire du PCI ?)
Identificazione partecipativa del patrimonio culturale immateriale transfrontaliero; Milano: ASPACI, 2011. p. 124 - 138.Musée d’ethnographie
Le Manifeste de Lausanne. Pour une anthropologie non-hégémonique; Montréal: Liber, 2011. p. 96 - 98.Culture
Le Manifeste de Lausanne. Pour une anthropologie non-hégémonique; Montréal: Liber, 2011. p. 53 - 55.Patrimoine
Le Manifeste de Lausanne. Pour une anthropologie non-hégémonique; Montréal: Liber, 2011. p. 103 - 106.The Lausanne Manifesto. For a Non-Hegemonic Anthropology
The Lausanne Manifesto. For a Non-Hegemonic Anthropology; Montréal: Liber, 2011. p. 11 - 36.La patrimonialisation des Chinese Clan Jetties de Penang : de la marge au centre
From Palermo to Penang: A journey into Political Anthropology – Festschrift for Christian Giordano/ De Palerme à Penang: Un itinéraire en anthropologie politique – Mélanges offerts à Christian Giordano; Münster/Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2010. p. 311 - 329.Working Papers
Memory and historic urban landscapes: An interdisciplinary research in Mexico-City, Rome and Beijing
2017Talks
An Anthropological Perspective on Heritage: Connecting the Tangible and the Intangible
The (theoretical) discourse : A future for whose past ?, Museum Swiss Architecture, Basel, Switzerland, 2025-06-12.La gestion des risques d'avalanches: élément du patrimoine culturel immatériel au prisme du développement durable
Heritage for Sustainable Development, Genève, Suisse, 2025-04-02.Regards anthropologiques sur les lieux de sociabilité dans les villes
Urban Legends Porto - Théorie et critique du projet BA3 (Gay et Menzel), Lausanne, Switzerland, 2025-03-25.Exploring the Dominant Discourse in Mega-events Legacy and Industrial Heritage Reuse through a Relationship Matrix
(Industrial) Heritage, Mega-events and Urban Regeneration: Empirical Study on Discourses, Function and Spatial Experience, Torino, Italy, May 22, 2024.La gestion du risque d'avalanches
Formation continue: Patrimoine culturel immatériel et développement durable, INP 2024, Musée de Salagon, France, 13-17 mai 2024.Anthropological Insights into the Cultural Heritage and Landscape Surrounding Beijing's Forbidden City
Open Fields Lunch: Landscape Habitats, EPFL, Switzerland, April 9, 2024.Intangible culture in built heritage: Practices of heritage-making at international and national scales
Future Heritage, Kernfach Master FS24, ETHZ, Zurich, Switzerland, 2024-03-14.Chungking Express : Proximité physique et distance émotionnelle dans le Hong Kong des années 1990
Ecrans Urbains 2024 (Ville, architecture, paysage au cinéma), Lausanne, Suisse, 21 Février 2024.Avalanche Risk Management: from science to practice and from the ground to research
Webinar ICH and climate change, Paris, France, January 18, 2024.La gestion du danger d’avalanches en patrimoine
Formation patrimoine culturel immatériel: PCI et gestion des ressources naturelles, Garae Ethnopôle, Carcassonne, France, January 9, 2023.Culture populaire et exercice du pouvoir en Chine. Épisode 2 : Culture populaire, un outil de contrôle social ?
Les Belles Heures, Montreal, Canada, June 1, 2023.The Leisure activities in community “vacant” lots: How the grassroots practices appropriate the public space in China
XX ISA World Congress of Sociology, RC21 Regional and Urban Development, Melbourne, Australia, June 25-July 1, 2023.Culture populaire et exercice du pouvoir en Chine. Épisode 1 : Éduquer les masses par la culture
Les Belles Heures, Montreal, Canada, May 25, 2023.Requestioning heritage narratives and the politics of storytelling
Hidden/(un)told heritage narratives and the politics of storytelling, Swiss Institute in Rome, Italy, May 15-16, 2023.Porter le temps : Mémoires urbaines d’un site horloger
Table ronde, Le Locle, Suisse, February 24, 2023.Introduction : urban regeneration and industrial heritage
Urban Regeneration and Industrial Heritage, EPFL, February 23-24, 2023.Introduction : Héritage et patrimoine au prisme du conjonctif et du disjonctif
Journées d'études Héritage et Patrimoine, Marseille, France, June 15-16, 2023.Frictions et appropriations d’un espace patrimonial : l’Axe central de Pékin
Dynamiques contemporaines en Asie: Patrimoine architectural et urbain dans les villes en Asie, Paris, France, June 23, 2023.Analysis of Beijing 2022 Big Air Venue through data from WeChat Channel & Weibo
WeChat Ethnography: New Practices and Limits of an Emerging Research Method. Part 1, Geneva, Switzerland, October 7, 2022.The resistance of stone: thick and fragmented urban collective memory in Gulou
Digitalization of Memory in China, Bonn, Germany, 21-22 September 2022.Mega Event Reinforced Industrial Heritage Transformation: A typological matrix between narratives and practices
TICCIH 2022 Industrial Heritage Reloaded, Montreal, Canada, 28 August - 3 September 2022.Avalanche et UNESCO : rien à voir ?
Festival International du Film Alpin (FIFAD), Diablerets, Suisse, August 13-20, 2022.La produzione della memoria urbana: una tavola rotonda interdisciplinare
Porter le temps: mémoires urbaines du Locle et de la Chaux-de-Fonds
The production of urban memory: an interdisciplinary roundtable, Milano, Italy, May 26, 2022.Uses of Cultural Heritage: The iconic case of Shougang
Dialogue on Winter Olympic Games. From Beijing to Milan: Design Innovations for Sustainability, Virtual Event, May 12, 2022.Le Locle/La Chaux-de-Fonds: Public histories and industrial heritage in contemporary cities
Open Fields Lunch–Productive habitats, Lausanne, Switzerland, April 14, 2022.Governance of Heritage and Creativity: an introductory framework
Governing Heritage and Creativity: frictions, avenues and questions, Rome, Italy, April 4-5, 2022.Comment les nouvelles technologies peuvent-elles contribuer à la valorisation du patrimoine culturel dans les pays émergeants ?
Salon des Technologies et de l’Innovation de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, 2022-03-10.Rumba congolaise et enjeux de l'inscription au patrimoine culturel immatériel de l'UNESCO
Table ronde at the Black Movies Festival, Genève, 27.01.2022.Les anthropologues face aux "traditions vivantes": l'exemple suisse
Colloque international Nommer / Normer : Approches pluridisciplinaires du patrimoine culturel immatériel, Paris, France, November 25-26, 2021.Reframing Heritage, Creativity and Innovation
Heritage, Creativity and Innovation Nexus: an international workshop, Lausanne, Switzerland, November 4-5, 2021.La Suisse en inventaire : politiques de sauvegarde du PCI
Patrimoine culturel immatériel : Cadres international et national, réseaux, territoires, Vitré, France, 12-13 octobre 2021.Beijing Winter Olympic Games 2022: ecological civilization as a new step for extended urbanization to enhance consumption
The 2021 annual conference of the International Sociological Association Research Committee 21 on Urban and Regional Development (RC21 Conference): Sensing the city, [Online edition] Antwerpen, Belgium, July 14-16, 2021.Explorer la micropolitique de transformation à Pékin : le patrimoine culturel vu à travers le prisme de la mémoire collective d’un quartier historique
Assises de l’Anthropologie des Mondes Chinois, Paris, France, Juin 16-18, 2021.Nurturing the socialist spiritual civilization: Interplay between anthropology and politics
Swiss Anthropological Association Annual Meeting Reviewing “the field”: contemporary debates and approaches to fieldwork, Ascona, Switzerland, April 22-24, 2021.Cultivating public space and yangge dance
Symposium XJTLU Public Space Forum, Suzhou, PRC, Live Zoom Event.Heritage as new social engineering in China: a re-colonializing perspective
Heritage and Decoloniality: the Geneva exchanges, Geneva, Suisse, October 21-22, 2021.Ville éphémère : la Fête des Vignerons aujourd’hui et demain
Ecosystème de Lavaux. Lavaux Patrimoine mondial, Grandvaux, Suisse, November 5, 2019.Cultural heritage, leisure and Beijing Olympic Winter Games 2022
Workshop at the Beijing Municipal Institute of City Planning and Design, Beijing, PRC, October 28, 2019.Creative Communities A Landscape of Spaces and Practices
The Chinese University of Hong Kong Global Studies Program, EPFL, Switzerland, June 11, 2019.Historic Urban Landscape as an opportunity for change? Evidence from Beijing
Globalized Heritage in Asia: regional articulations, silences, contestations, Université de Genève, Suisse, May 24, 2019.Entangled Memories in the Bell and Drum Towers in Beijing
ACC Lecture Architecture: conjectures and refutations, Politecnico di Torino, Italy, March 14, 2019.Encountering cultures of making in China: narratives and practices of co-creative communities
#Chinacreative: Users, Makers, Dreamers, a Workshop on Vernacular Creativity and Beyond, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, October 4-5, 2018.Re-creating Memories of Gulou: Three Temporalities and Emotions
Association of Critical Heritage Studies 4th Biennal conference, Heritage Across Boarders, Hangzhou, China, September 1-6, 2018.Inventories without archives: the list of “Living Traditions in Switzerland”
Archiving Intangible Cultural Heritage & Performing Arts – a Symposium for Living Traditions, Artlab, EPFL, Lausanne, August 6-7, 2018.Looking at Corboz from an anthropological perspective
Table-ronde Revisiting André Corboz: methods, challenges, potentials, Università della Svizzera Italiana, Accademia di Architectura, Mendrisio, Switzerland, Octobre 29, 2018.The Practices of World Heritage-Making: Chinese National Hegemony and UNESCO Narratives
Lecture series Master Degree in Architecture Construction City, Turin, Italy, May 17, 2017.Urban Scars, Ghosts and Collective Memories : Heritage and Resistance to Patrimonialization in Beijing and Mexico City
School of Architecture / Anna University, Chennai, India, January 27, 2017.Heritage in the Making: a genealogy of successive attempts for UNESCO lists
Public Seminar Memory and the city: An ongoing collective research on the Unesco site of Le Locle and La Chaux-de-Fonds, Politecnico di Torino, Italy, June 27, 2017.Redéfinitions du patrimoine culturel par les marges : Résistances à la Recommandation sur les paysages historiques dans le quartier de Gulou, Beijing
Colloque International Le Patrimoine Mondial : une valeur universelle exceptionnelle ?, Centre des Monuments nationaux, Cité de Carcassonne, France, 4-5 Décembre, 2017.The thickness and fragmentation of urban collective memory: the “resistance of the stones” in Gulou, Beijing
International Symposium on Anthropology undergoing the evolution of communities, Beijing, PRC, September 23, 2017.Architecture and Resistance: Theory, Methods and Projects
Chinese New Towns (project), Torino, Politecnico di Torino, Italy, June 15, 2016.Cartographier les mémoires collectives à Gulou ou la difficulté d’allier les volontés politiques et les voix populaires dans le centre historique de Pékin
Séminaire de l'Institut d'Asie Orientale, ENS-Lyon, France, Novembre 17, 2016.Beijing Danwei: from the Memory of the City to New Regeneration Plans
Forum Architecture in China and Italy: From Ancient Towns to Low-Carbon Towns, Firenze, Italy, March 18, 2016.Zhangjiakou sustainable projects for 2022 Winter Olympic Games: a critical overview from anthropological perspective
Review of the Joint studio Tsinghua PoliTO 2015: Zhangjiakou sustainable projects for 2022 Winter Olympic Games, Castello del Valentino, Politecnico di Torino, Italy, June 15, 2015.China: current social issues
Conference, Master degree in Architecture Construction City: Designing collective place in a Chinese new town, Politecnico di Torino, Italy, May 11, 2015.The architectures of Expos
Public Forum, The House of Switzerland, Expo Milano 2015, Italy, October 21, 2015.Generating space both by and for the human body
Beijing Design Week: Forum Bai Ta Si Rethinking Old Town Redevelopments, Tsinghua University (World Architecture Magazine), Beijing, China, September 27, 2015.The mapping controversial memories (MCM) project
Kick-off meeting of the Mapping controversial memories in the historic urban landscape: a multidisciplinary study in Beijing, Mexico City and Rome, Istituto Svizzero di Roma, Italy, February 18-20, 2015.Introduction à la société chinoise
Conférence, Module Social inclusion and elderly care, Lausanne, Suisse, March 9, 2015.Gulou communities between the historical Drum and Bell Tower square
International workshop Architecture and Resistance, Lasur (ENAC), Iags (CdH), EPFL, Switzerland, December 14-15, 2015.Mapping collective memories in Beijing: emerging controversies within Gulou communities
International conference Cultural heritage in China: Contested Understandings, Images and Practices, Lund University, Sweden, June 17-18, 2015.Discussants on Beijing Danwei: Industrial Heritage in the Contemporary City (Berlin, Jovis, 2015) edited by Michele Bonino and Filippo De Pieri
Launch Book, Beijing Design Week, Relay Factory, Dashilar, Beijing, China, September 25, 2015.Identifying ‘living traditions’ in Switzerland
International conference Das Immaterielle Kulturerbe in Österreich. Interaktionen von Kultur, Politik und Ökonomie, Museum für Volskunde, Institut für Kultur and Sozialanthropologie, Universität Wien, Austria, June 10-12, 2015.Teahouse in Chengdu: public spaces and Chinese society
Lectures of Architecture Construction City, Politecnico di Torino, Italy, March 23, 2015.China: from modernization to reforms
Conference, Master degree in Architecture Construction City: Designing collective place in a Chinese new town, Politecnico di Torino, Italy, April 20, 2015.Chengdu's history and social organizations
Conference, Master degree in Architecture Construction City: Designing collective place in a Chinese new town, Politecnico di Torino, Italy, March 25, 2015.Process of patrimonialisation and collective memories in Gulou communities
International workshop: Mapping controversial memories project in Beijing, Beijing Design Week, BaiTaSi ReMade, Beijing, China, September 25-28, 2015.Eduquer les masses par la culture: l'exemple de la danse du yangge
Conférence, cours Enjeux sociaux en Chine contemporaine, Université de Genève, Suisse, Mars 17, 2015.Mapping Controversial Memories in the Historic Urban Landscape: A Multidisciplinary Study in Beijing, Mexico City and Rome
Launch workshop of the SNIS 2014 funded projects, Graduate Institute of International and Development studies, Geneva, October 9, 2014.Mapping collective memories in Beijing: emerging controversies within and between local communities
International conference Citizen Civil Society and Cultural Policies of Heritage-Making in East and Southeast Asia, Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, December 11-13, 2014.Breathing new life into Beijing public spaces: an ethnography of neighbourhood community life
Doctorate research in Architecture: history and project – New perspective on urban heritage, Politecnico di Torino, Italy, October 24, 2014.Cultural discourses on Heritage in China: an anthropological perspective
Conference, Innovation and Organization of Cultural and the Arts (GIOCA): Heritage, History, and the Issue of Managing, University of Bologna, Italy, January 23, 2014.Patrimoine tangible et intangible en Chine
Conférence, Maîtrise pluridisciplinaire en études asiatiques (Master-Asie), IHEID, Genève, Suisse, Février 17, 2014.Tourism and Heritage
Conférence, Minor in Area and Cultural Studies, EPFL, July 15, 2014.Comment Luca Zan paper – Nationalism in China and Historical Buildings
International Workshop: The State and Historic Buildings: Preserving ‘the national Past’, European University Institute, Florence, Italy, November 8-9, 2013.Anthropen, dictionnaire on line
Présentation et lancement du dictionnaire d'anthropologie en ligne Anthropen, Université de Lausanne, Suisse, Février 25, 2013.Cultural Heritage Discourses and Contestations in China
Minor in Area and Cultural Studies, Lausanne summer school, Module Society, EPFL, July 17, 2013.Tourisme et patrimoine à Malacca. Un couple bien assorti ?
Colloque international Médiation et créativité en tourisme et en patrimoine. Acteurs, modalités et enjeux, Musée de la mémoire vivante (Saint-Jean-Port-joli), Université Laval, Québec, Mai 12, 2013.Sociology meets Architecture
Séminaire doctoral Politechnico de Turin, Turin, 9-10.09.2013.Performing the ‘harmonious society’ in Huangling, Shaanxi Province. Chinese New Year Celebrations to ‘serve the people’ (wei renmin fuwu)
International workshop: Disorder, Action and the Public Good in China, University of Lausanne, Switzerland, December 6-7, 2013.Multiculturalism, cosmopolitanism, and making heritage in Malaysia: a view from the historic cities of the Straits of Malacca
International Symposium: Shaping Heritage-Scapes: Processes of Patrimonialization in a Globalized World, University of Lausanne, Switzerland, August 27-28, 2012.Modelling a national folk festival in heritage policy: The case of the Mountain of the Marvellous Peak (Miaofeng shan) near Beijing
Association of Critical Heritage Studies Inaugural Conference : Re-theorisation of heritage, University of Goteborg, Sweden, June 5-8, 2012.Analyser l’engagement scientifique dans le contexte de l’inventaire du patrimoine culturel immatériel en Suisse
Décade de Cerisy: Le patrimoine culturel immatériel, Centre Culturel International de Cerisy-la-Salle, France, Septembre 24-29, 2012.Traditions vivantes, une catégorie bonne à penser? Le cas de la Suisse fédérale
Local Vocabularies of “Heritage”: Variabilities, Negotiations, Transformations, University of Evora, Portugal, February 8-10, 2012.Le manifeste de Lausanne
Conference, cours Histoire de la mondialisation, Université de Lausanne, Suisse, Mai 3, 2012.Heritage and Democracy
Association of Critical Heritage Studies Inaugural Conference : Re-theorisation of heritage, University of Goteborg, Sweden, June 5-8, 2012.Heritage, Conservation and Civil Society
Minor in Area and Cultural Studies, Lausanne summer school, Module Society, EPFL, July 17, 2012.Loisirs et pratiques sociales en Chine contemporaine: l'exemple du yangge et du qigong
Conférence, cours SHS Mondes asiatiques: enjeux contemporains, EPFL, April 6, 2011.Identifying ‘Living Traditions’ for the UNESCO Convention for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage : A new Storytelling of Swissness?
Colloque annuel de la Société Suisse d'Ethnologie: Approaching Political Anthropology, University of Zurich, Switzerland, November 25-26, 2011.Quelles perspectives pour une anthropologie non hégémonique ? Le manifeste de Lausanne
1er congrès de l’Association française d’Ethnologie et d’Anthropologie (AFEA) Connaissance No(s) Limit (es), EHESS, Paris, France, Avril 17-21, 2011.What perspectives are there for a non-hegemonic anthropology?
110th Annual meeting of the l’American Anthropological Association (AAA): Traces, Tidemarks and Legacies, Montreal, Canada, November 16-20, 2011.Making Swiss Intangible Cultural Heritage: tensions between the centre and its peripheries
Colloque international de la Société Internationale d’Ethnologie et de Folklore (SIEF): People make places – ways of feeling the world, Université Libre de Lisbonne, Portugal, April 17-21, 2011.Identifying ‘living traditions’ in Switzerland: Re-enacting federalism through the Application of the UNESCO Convention
working conference DFG Research Group 772 “The Constitution of Cultural Property”: Heritage Regime and the State: Nomination, Implementation, Regulation, University of Göttingen, Germany, June 17-19, 2011.Posture de l’anthropologue et statut de l’expertise dans le processus d’inventaire des ‘traditions vivantes’ en Suisse
1er congrès de l’Association française d’Ethnologie et d’Anthropologie (AFEA) Connaissance No(s) Limit (es), EHESS, Paris, France, Septembre 21-24, 2011.De la marge au centre. La promotion des Chinese Clan Jetties de Penang (Malaisie) au titre de patrimoine universel
Colloque international Patrimoine culturel et désir de territoire : vers quels développements ?, Université de Nîmes, France, February 25-27, 2010.Intangible cultural Heritage
Colloque annuel de la Société Suisse d'Ethnologie: L'anthropolgie en Suisse aujourd'hui, Université de Berne, Suisse, November 12-13, 2010.Patrimonialisation d'une ville du Sud-Est asiatique (Penang, Malaisie)
Maîtrise pluridicsiplinaire en études asiatiques (Master Asie), IHEID, Genève, Suisse, April 21, 2010.Student Projects
Melencolia II
2024Youth Mental Health Centre in Sion, Valais
2024Atelier 18
2024Le haut, le bas, et l’entre-deux
2024Bivak. (Re) Penser-Composer-Utiliser
2024SMALL - Un nouveau dispositif d'accueil d'urgence pour le Service social de Genève
2023Le repas pour recoudre l’espace public. Quai du Mont-Blanc et quartier des Pâquis
2023Investigateur de zones inhabitées
2023Entre artisanat et industrie: une manufacture à Crissier
2023Military and Art Museum Bunkered into the Landscape
2023Vivre seuls ensemble. Une architecture à usage mixte et communautaire à la Servette
2022Observatoire ornithologique de Vidy. Surélévation au cœur d’une réserve aménagée entre terre et lac, dans la partie Ouest du parc Louis Bourget à Vidy (Lausanne Sud)
2022Colline de la Muraz à Nyon – Alternative de densification urbaine par la transposition de préceptes spatiaux japonais
2022Construction vernaculaire d’une auberge dans les montagnes en Chine
2022Préventorium Le Rosaire: un espace sensible à la fragilité
2022Habitat Néo Rural, Biorégion de la Calanca: construction d’un scénario d’habitat humain alternatif à partir d’un territoire rural à l’abandon
2021Un refuge longue durée-Les saisonniers comme nouvelle société nomade
2021Un eco-quartier dans la ville de Bukavu
2021Part’âge: logements mixtes et évolutifs à Chêne-Bougeries (Genève)
2021Datchnikis urbains: les jardins habités de Moscou
2020Enracinée de l'autre côté. Centre culturel arbëreshë à Hora e Arbëreshëve, Sicile
2020Comparing Habitats. International PhD Seminar
2018Hutongs-Transformations: A Battle between memories
2015Projet ENAC : Shipbreaking : a status report on the Alang-Sosiya Yard
2014What's the origin of the Struggle between China and its minorities? A Case Study on Tibet
2011The role of recruitment agencies in Filipina migration to Hong Kong
2011Idiosyncrasies of the 1997 Hong Kong: Emigration Phenomenon
2011Media
Shougang ou la nouvelle icône du patrimoine industriel chinois
2022.JO de Pékin: l'urbanisation des montagnes par le tourisme
2022.“China intends to fill the void in a world characterized by a vacuum of values”
2021.Research
culture and power
- Makerspaces: politics and communities of innovation in contemporary China (2016-2019)
Funded by the SNSF, this project is lead by Dr. Florence Graezer Bideau in collaboration with Dr. Marc Laperrouza, Monique Bolli and Clément Renaud (Iags, EPFL). It investigates the social, technical and commercial attributes of key Chinese makerspaces and their communities in three Chinese cities (Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen). While limited in size and scope, makerspaces and the maker movement in general offer a very rich environment to study much broader social, political and economic transformations taking place in contemporary China. It aims to shed light on how a bottom-up and autonomous movement responds to the co-opting of the State and to discuss the Chinese government’s plasticity and capacity to engage with emerging classes.
- Cultural policy in China in the 20th century (1995-2005)
Funded by several institutions (Mobility Grant between the University of Lausanne and Peking, Cantonal Grant of the Swiss Universities Central Office, and SNSF), this doctoral project was developed in China (Institute of Sociology and Anthropology, Peking University, Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Beijing), Australia (Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, ANU, Canberra) and France (China Centre (CECMC), EHESS, Paris). The construction of cultural policy made up the core of my Ph.D. research in Beijing and Shaanxi Province between 1995 and 2000. I explored it through the detailed study of the practice of yangge, a traditional folk dance ritual banned during the Cultural Revolution but is now practiced once again under China
heritage
- Memory and the city: assessing tools for interdisciplinary research and teaching (2016-2018)Funded by the Compagnia San Paolo and Politecnico di Torino, this project is lead by Pr.Filippo De Pieri and Dr. Florence Graezer Bideau in collaboration with Prof. Alessandro Armando and Dr. Davide Vero (DAD at PoliTo) and Dr. Yves Pedrazzini, Prof. Nicola Braghieri, Dr. Lesslie Herrera and Lucia Bordone (Lasur, Lapis and Iags at EPFL). The research aims to assess and experiment research tools for the study of the relationship between collective memory, urban space, and design in contemporary cities. It stems from previous empirical and collaborative experiences between PoliTo and EPFL in the study of urban collective memories. By scrutinizing the two cities of La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle jointly inscribed on the UNESCO’s World Heritage list in 2009, the project aims to respond to the widely felt need to elaborate innovative research paths concerning the methodology and the goals of research on urban memory. Memory studies have gained an increasing presence in the research and teaching activities of European technical schools, in parallel with the growing role played by tangible and intangible heritage in processes of urban/architectural transformation. The project explores the ways in which memory studies can represent a challenge and opportunity for ‘Polytechnic’ research and education, forging links between different fields of knowledge such as architectural design, urban history, sociology and anthropology, visual studies, mapping.
- Mapping controversial memories in the historic urban landscape : a multidisciplinary study of Beijing, Mexico City and Rome (2015-2017)
Funded by the SNIS, this project is lead by Dr. Florence Graezer Bideau in collaboration with Dr. Yves Pedrazzini, Lesslie Herrera, Lucia Bordone (EPFL) and scholars in HES-Sierre, Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage à Beijing, Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana –Iztapalapa à Mexico City, Politecnico Torino, Tsinghua University, Roma 2 and Roma 3. The research aims to produce a comparative, multidisciplinary study on the impact of UNESCO’s Recommendation on the historic urban landscape, (RHUL 2011), which seeks to integrate conservation and development in urban policy. The project addresses three questions in Beijing, Mexico City and Rome.
1) Which memorial references are mobilized by local actors in their historical urban landscape?
2) To what extent does the perception of collective-memory overlap with the existing local implementation of heritage conservation policies?
3) Which potential approach for the recognition of plural memories within the RHUL best underpins attachment to urban territories?
Combining methods from urban sociology, cultural anthropology and visual modeling, this project strives to contribute a better understanding of so-called collective memory dynamics and controversies that are emerging in these historic cities. The research encompasses popular understanding of uses of heritage, official norms and regulations as well as controversies produced by the mismatch of practice and discourse at the different levels of analysis: local; national; and international.
- Implementation of the UNESCO Convention for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage in Switzerland: an ethnography of cultural bureaucracy in the federalist context (2009-2012, 2012-2014)
Financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation (Sinergia Projects "Intangible Cultural Heritage: the Midas Touch?"and "Intangible Cultural Heritage: Whispered Words", directed by Prof. Ellen Hertz, University of Neuchâtel), this project followed the implementation of the UNESCO Convention, ratified by the Swiss Confederation in 2008. Using ethnographic methodology, complemented by a thorough mastery of the relevant documents and policy decision, this project explored how this new international cultural policy was applied in Switzerland and what effects it produced on Swiss conceptions of, and mobilization around, local, regional and national cultural forms. By surveying the process of cataloging intangible cultural heritage at various levels (local, cantonal, federal and international) - with a special focus on moments of definition and selection, (selection criteria, user guides, the use of outside expertise, the reference to "civil society") - this project shed new light on the nature of the relationship between state and society in the field of culture, the commodification or reification of cultural expressions and traditions, and the emergence of new forms of nationalism linked with folklorization. Adopting a broadly based comparative approach, this project not only explored Swiss cultural policy from a new angle - "intangible cultural heritage" - but also considered more comprehensively the effects of the UNESCO Convention on cultural policies worldwide.
- Multiculturalism, cosmopolitanism and making heritage in Malaysia: overview from the Straits of Malacca (2006-2011)
Begun in the context of the French-speaking Swiss Graduate Programme in Socio-Cultural Anthropology (CUSO) and funded by the University of Lausanne (Research Grant of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences’ Dean office), this project was carried out in collaboration with Prof. Mondher Kilani (Laboratoire d’anthropologie culturelle et sociale, University of Lausanne) between 2006 and 2011. It was a reflection on multiculturalism and cosmopolitanism in Malaysia and revolved around the perceptions and representations of tangible and intangible cultural heritage within the three main communities of the Federation (Malay, Chinese and Indian) using a series of case studies in George Town (Penang), Melaka, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. The comparative analysis of these distinct processes of heritagization highlighted political, economical, social, religious and cultural issues linked to the Malaysian "rainbow nation", while also drawing attention to some of the problems inherent in the apparently universal UNESCO framework (contradictions between tangible and intangible heritage, commodification of living culture, consequences of gentrification, etc.).
making of the city
- Hybrid cities: Informal Resistances to the Violence of Urbanization in China, India and Venezuela (2016-2019)
Funded by the SNSF, the project is lead by Dr. Yves Pedrazzini (LAsur, EPFL) in collaboration with Dr. Florence Graezer Bideau, Salomé Houllier, Caroline Iorio (EPFL) and scholars in Politecnico di Torino, Anna University in Chennai, Instituto de Estudios Avanzados and Fundación Caracas and South China University of Technology in Guangzhou. As both a science and an ideology, contemporary urbanism induces a violence of urbanization. This is usually done in the name of formal planning of territory at the expense of informal settlements. The latter resist this formalization and their scheduled deletion, sometimes resorting to violence. In some cases this confrontation overcomes the duality between formal and informal. The confrontation of two icons of the modern city, the informal slum and the formal skyscraper, produces hybrid structures, objects, and details that move towards a new urbanism; our current cities are built by architectural, urban, territorial and social hybridization. This process creates an innovative and critical approach to the modern models of formal urbanization that seems to persecute the inhabitants of informal settlements, giving rise to resistance movements. These modalities vary widely across differing geopolitical contexts, which is why we work in three large urban areas simultaneously – Chennai in India, Guangzhou in China and Caracas in Venezuela. These we consider as separate expressions of a process that is global and complex; a process within which social struggles and urban problems bind closely through the development of new contradictions, all of which takes place at the heart of the city.
– Chinese New Towns: negotiating citizenship and physical form (2015-2017)
Funded by the Politecnico di Torino, the CeNTO project lead by Prof. Michele Bonino (Department of Architecture and Design) looks at the construction of the “third-generation” of Chinese New Towns that will host another 300 million rural Chinese migrating to urban areas over the next 20 years. Conditioned by certain new key-words promoted by the Chinese government - such as “innovation”, “sustainability”, “inclusive growth” - this research investigates how, through the lens of architecture and urban design, physical form, can reveal experimental processes of the negotiation of both citizenship and social identity. It also explores how Chinese New Towns have appropriated urban models from different contexts.
Teaching & PhD
Teaching
Humanities and Social Sciences Program
Architecture
Past EPFL PhD Students
Bolli Monique Stéphanie , Bordone Lucia , Houllier-Binder Salomé Clémentine , Iorio Caroline , Jafarbegloo Maryam , Roux Héléna Elisabeth Marguerite , Zhang Mengke ,Courses
Anthropology of the urban
This course addresses the conceptual approaches of urban anthropology, methods, and field experiences. In 2025-2026, it will participate in the project 'A Future for Whose Past?' initiated by ETHZ, which is dedicated to the tangible and intangible heritage of minority communities.
Montreux Jazz Memories: Heritage & digitalization I
Within the Montreux Jazz Digital Project framework, this course proposes to create and publish podcasts (ENG / FR) based on interviews about the backstage of the festival. It aims to develop critical and practical knowledge of the dynamics of digitalization and recognition of heritage.
Montreux Jazz Memories: Heritage & digitalization II
Within the Montreux Jazz Digital Project framework, this course proposes to create and publish podcasts (ENG / FR) based on interviews about the backstage of the festival. It aims to develop critical and practical knowledge of the dynamics of digitalization and recognition of heritage.