Dr Tristan Loloum

You do more than teaching...

Yes, in parallel with my teaching position, I work as a research anthropologist, and as such I'm attached to the Institut Énergie et Environnement, an inter-school research institute of the HES-SO Valais. For the past three years, the SWEET LANTERN project has kept me very busy. Funded by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE), this consortium of 17 academic institutions aims to study and accelerate the energy transition. It's a project that essentially mobilizes the social sciences, starting from people's everyday lives: to do this, we use participative co-creation methods, through living labs.

My role as sustainability policy contact point at HESTS also enables me to get involved in institutional policy. How do we transform our teaching to integrate this dimension into our courses? How do we encourage research into socio-environmental challenges in the field of social work? How can we make campus life more sustainable? It's a small part of my job, but it's one that's close to my heart.

What are the distinctive features of HES research and work compared to UNIL?

HES are essentially dedicated to professional training. This is interesting because students don't have the same sociological and academic profiles as at UNIL. Right from their Bachelor's degree, they forge practical experience, by carrying out several internships. The social sciences I teach are intended to be transferable into professional skills.

But HES are increasingly developing the research component, with a focus on applied research, or impact research. At HESTS, we actually have success rates for SNSF projects equivalent to those of universities. At the moment, research occupies 50% of my working time. Unlike the university, the research part of the specification varies, depending on various factors, such as our publications, applications and funding.

As a result, research is often in line with calls for projects from federal offices or the SNSF, as it corresponds to social or political demand. As a result, HES work is very much rooted in society and current affairs. On the other hand, this leaves less time available for publications, more in-depth research and fundamental research.

What skills developed in FGSE are you currently using?

I'm currently very involved in the SFOE project. It's a project worth CHF 10 million in direct funding over 7 years, bringing together almost 60 researchers and focusing on mobility, habitat and participatory research. For my part, I'm in charge of a sub-project on low-carbon tourism. This ecological approach to tourism is in line with my thesis at UNIL, on beach tourism in the north-eastern Brazil. My work at the IGD in the tourism studies group, with Christophe Clivaz, has enabled me to acquire expertise in governance and sustainability, which is still very useful.

It was also at the Faculty of Geosciences and Environment that I strengthened my interdisciplinarity. Finally, few people have this opportunity for interdisciplinary socialization with geographers, environmental scientists, sociologists... It's very inspiring and formative.

Do you still have any research collaborations with the FGSE?

À travers le projet SWEET, je collabore étroitement avec Selin Yilmaz. Nous montons aussi des projets ensemble, sur des questions de justice énergétique, sur des communautés énergétiques locales (CEL). Et je collabore aussi occasionnellement avec Christophe Clivaz, sur les questions touristiques, et continue de fréquenter l’IGD de Bramois, qui n’est pas loin de chez moi.

Through the SWEET project, I work closely with Selin Yilmaz. We also set up projects together, on issues of energy justice and local energy communities. I also work occasionally with Christophe Clivaz on tourism issues, and continue to attend the IGD in Bramois, which is not far from where I live.

How did your application for the position of “HES Professor of Social Work and Energy Transition” go?

The position opened up during my postdoc. Its creation was linked to an institutional desire to bring the Institute for Energy and the Environment and social work closer together. Indeed, energy and engineering projects are increasingly calling on sociologists and anthropologists. For me, this job vacancy was quite miraculous, as it really concerned the themes that interested me, i.e. social, environmental and energy issues, and all the more so in Valais, a canton I'm very fond of.

During the interview, I had to convince people and explain what I saw as the link between social work and the energy transition. A question I'd been thinking about during my research into environmental governance and the power issues surrounding energy infrastructures.

How can we integrate the ecological transition in a field that deals with vulnerable populations and has other a priori priorities?

In social work, there remains a certain suspicion of the ecological transition: the idea that we're going to impose new environmental injunctions on people who are already vulnerable, even though these populations have a lesser environmental impact and a limited capacity to act. “Environmental justice” focuses on environmental inequalities as a structuring concept for social work. This concept is at the heart of my reflections, enabling me to position social work legitimately in ecological transformation issues. In other words, “ecology without class struggle is gardening”, as the Brazilian activist Chico Mendes put it. Moreover, if there's any social work to be done in terms of energy transition, it's above all with the most affluent sections of the population, to bring them back within planetary limits and also to remind them of the injunction of equity. It's a bit of an inversion of the usual patterns of social work, which usually target vulnerable categories.

Looking back on your career, what do you think? Do you have any advice for PhD students or postdocs preparing for the next stage of their careers?

I moved around quite a bit, across disciplines and countries, according to my intellectual affinities, opportunities and curiosity. It was undoubtedly a bit risky, and I consider myself lucky to have found this position, in a territory and with a theme to which I was already attached.

It's not easy to project yourself, but perhaps you need to think strategically about which subjects are scientifically promising, and where there's a real demand for expertise. And finally seek advice from professors and professionals on the themes that will more easily open doors.

Specializing in subjects that are exciting but not very promising can be risky. As a young researcher, I think it's important to have a plan B, because academic positions are limited, and because there are plenty of other great opportunities in the professional world. There are also a lot of non-academic skills that are called upon in a doctoral career: project management, languages, writing, IT tools, field experience and so on. Don't hesitate to make the most of them, and supplement them with ongoing training.

How do you see your career in the next few years?

I've been in this job for three years now. I've settled in and have a better understanding of how the HES-SO matrix works. While continuing to progress within the institution, my aspiration now is to find a good balance between research, teaching, service activities – and my personal life.

The energy transition and energy justice are subjects that still have a long way to go. I'm going to continue to delve into them, both in my research projects and in my teaching. I'd like to propose more operational concepts and indicators, and work on new case studies to gain a more concrete understanding of fair transition. The climate crisis is creating growing tensions and deepening social inequalities.  In this panorama, the role of social work is to make visible the marginalized populations with whom we have always worked – people with disabilities, minorities, migrants, children, the elderly. It's important to reflect on these social issues to make this transformation less violent and more equitable.

Interview published on September 12, 2024