Cartographic diagnosis of the representations of a nuclear territory after the closure of a power plant. The case of Fessenheim (France)
The closure of the nuclear power plan questions the notions of energy and territorial transitions. Could this event be the trigger for a reconversion of the territory? And, if so, how do residents imagine it? This contribution aims to reveal spontaneous representations of a nuclearized territory, to measure the place of nuclear power in discourse and its scope of impact. The protocol was constructed so that local residents were an integral part of the scientific activity by involving them in the production of knowledge on their territory. The objective is to test their ability to tackle a question – post-nuclear – in order to analyse their representations of the territory’s issues in a particular context, that of the closure of a single nuclear industry on which an entire commune has built its development. We are testing this hypothesis with local residents in order to access the propensity to go beyond nuclear identity and to project themselves, via their local practices, into another history (whether industrial or not). The approach is innovative in two ways: on the one hand, it is interested in the denuclearization process and, on the other hand, it uses the perception-based regional mapping (PBRM) non-directive method, in order to understand how citizens represent the challenges of the territory after the closure of the plant, and if nuclear power lastingly marks the identity of a territory. To do this, it involves conducting cartographic interviews to reveal the perceived issues, the spirit of the places experienced as experienced by the site inhabitants.