In 2020, Fessenheim’s nuclear plant bordering the Rhine stopped functioning. Its closure raises questions as to the territory’s nuclearized identity. In 2019, a steering committee, specially created by the French Government, gathered different actors for the writing of a ‘Projet d’Avenir du Territoire’ (PAT) [Territory’s future Project]. The major aim was to make the territory as an example in terms of lower-carbon innovation. The project defines four major points – including cross-border mobility and energetic transition – and three relevant scales to get the reconversion projects. However, their executions take time and failed to garner unanimous support.
The research project MEPADE aims to experiment with new participatory methods so as to understand how the territory is lived in and perceived by its population. We will therefore be asking ourselves the following question: how are we to diagnose the issues of a nuclearized territory in transition through participatory methods?
Two tools are set up for this purpose:

• A diagnosis of the perceived stakes within the territory through mapping interviews (PBRM – Perception Based Regional Mapping
• A gathering of the future’s representations of the territory through serious games

These two tools will lead us to a current stakes mapping, and to different sensitive and prospective stories.