From the French Blue Community / Blue City of Paris and its public water provider ‘Eau de Paris’:
Metamorphoses Workshop #14: Water, guardian of democratic renewal.
Conference December 9, 2025, 4:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
Location: Sciences Po (27 rue Saint Guillaume – 75007) and remotely on Vimeo.
Language: French (no translation)
Faced with the climate emergency and rising social tensions, water is becoming a central issue for citizen mobilization. On the ground, in court, and in representative assemblies, voices are rising to defend its future. Protest, litigation, participation: what paths lie ahead for water tomorrow? Has water become the sentinel of democratic renewal? This is the subject of the next session of the Metamorphosis Workshops.
With
- Loïc Blondiaux, Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University
- Emeline Hassendorfer, CIRAD
- Adeline Paradeise, Notre affaire à tous
- Benjamin Gestin, CEO of Eau de Paris
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France has a long tradition of collective mobilization and protest on environmental and climate issues. Today, it is clear that these protests are growing in a triple context of reduced water availability, ecological backlash, and a crisis of representative democracy. But above all, they are growing in parallel with the realization that our daily quality of life, our health, and that of future generations are now in question.
Long organized into local water parliaments—basin committees, which until recently were only marked by local protests that received little media coverage—the water sector has recently seen a resurgence of conflicts over water use and legal proceedings with strong national resonance. At the same time, the sector has never been the subject of so many local citizen participation initiatives.
We are at a crossroads that raises questions about the future of water at a time when representative democracy no longer seems to be fulfilling its role. Between protest, legal action, and participation, how will citizens, associations, and communities express themselves tomorrow?
Will the weapon of civil society and public actors be the law to compel the administration and industries? Protest to demand imperative change? Participation in governance to drive real change?
As a local and vital resource, highly emotive and at the heart of many public policies, does water have the capacity to unite local actors and citizens rather than divide them in an individualistic or corporatist manner? What should water stakeholders, elected officials, and local operators prepare for or promote?
Can water become the guardian of democratic renewal?
Speakers
Loïc Blondiaux, professor of political science at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, where he directs the master’s program in “Consultation Engineering.” He is also a researcher at the European Center for Sociology and Political Science (Paris I-Cnrs-Ehess). In 2020, he was appointed a member of the National Commission for Public Debate (college of qualified individuals).
Among his many roles, Loïc Blondiaux is also a member of the collegial management of the GIS “Democracy and Participation” (CNRS), a member of the board of directors of the Institute for Consultation and Citizen Participation, and a member of the scientific council of the Foundation for Nature and Mankind. He was a member of the governance committee of the Citizens’ Climate Convention. He has been editor-in-chief of Participations, a social science journal on citizenship and democracy (De Boeck publisher), since 2010 and has published, among other works, Le tournant délibératif de la démocratie (The Deliberative Turn in Democracy), 2021, Presses de Sciences Po, and La démocratie écologique (Ecological Democracy), 2022, Hermann.
Emeline Hassenforder is a researcher in engineering and evaluation of participatory approaches in the field of water and land governance. She works for the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) in the Water Management, Actors, and Uses Unit in Montpellier. Emeline Hassenforder has extensive international experience: in Europe (France, Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Switzerland during her post-doctorate), in Africa (Uganda and Ethiopia during her doctorate) and in transboundary basins in 35 countries. Having worked on water issues for 20 years, in 2024 she co-authored a book for INRAE entitled Transformative Participation for Socio-Ecological Sustainability: Around the CoOPLAGE Pathways, which outlines participatory approaches to support stakeholders in the co-construction of solutions and policies adapted to current socio-ecological challenges.
Adeline Paradeise is a lawyer at Notre Affaire à Tous. A former attorney, she uses her expertise to strengthen environmental rights and associations.
The association behind “L’Affaire du siècle” (The Case of the Century), which is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, uses the law as a strategic lever in the fight against the triple environmental crisis: climate, biodiversity, and pollution. The association is one of the major players in “Justice pour le Vivant” (Justice for Life), which just achieved a major victory on September 3, 2025. It collectively participated in the prosecution of two cases involving water pollution issues: the case of oil drilling in Nonville (77) alongside Eau de Paris (2024); the Arkema-Daikin case of 2024, against which the Metropolis of Lyon filed a complaint as part of a campaign to combat so-called eternal pollutants.
This session will be moderated by Benjamin Gestin, Director General of Eau de Paris.
The conference is the result of a partnership with Sciences Po.
