DePERU project

Deliberation

This research axis examines the influence of extreme radical uncertainty on deliberation processes, analyzing how it affects information gathering, scenario development, and reasoning at group, organizational, and institutional levels. The research studies the role of various forms of knowledge, expertise, and new technologies (including artificial intelligence and simulations) in strategic decision-making, with particular attention to crisis situations and hybrid systems involving multiple actors. The analysis also extends to how European democracies and the transatlantic alliance adapt to emerging strategic challenges, including hybrid threats and environmental crises.

Choices

This research axis explores the impact of radical uncertainty on decision-making processes at both individual and collective levels, examining how it influences different stages of choice, from initial deliberations to final decisions. The project analyzes whether radical uncertainty encourages automatic responses or more deliberate reasoning, drawing on models from various disciplines (psychology, economics, ethology, computational neuroscience), and including the study of non-human models such as insect societies. The research combines qualitative and quantitative approaches, using concrete scenarios related to radical uncertainty (climate change, armed conflicts, AI) to gather behavioral, physiological, and neuroscientific data, in order to understand how radical uncertainty modulates known influencing factors in decision-making.

Legitimacy

This research area examines the normative aspects of decision-making in radical uncertainty, analyzing how decisions are perceived as fair, justified, or legitimate by both decision-makers and those who are affected by the outcomes. It explores the three dimensions of legitimacy (pragmatic, cognitive, and moral) and investigates how various social, psychological, and economic factors influence the perception of decisions made by different actors (businesses, states, international organizations), particularly in crisis situations.

The research combines qualitative and quantitative approaches to analyze the impact of these perceptions of legitimacy on future behaviors (voting, civil disobedience, boycotts), through case studies conducted at different scales (local, national, international).

Application and mediation

This research area aims to establish close connections with civil society through participatory action research and scientific mediation, with the ambition of positioning the University of Lille as a leader in collaborative sciences and creating the Lille Interdisciplinary Institute on Radical Uncertainty (LIIRU). The project adopts a "team science" approach based on the HOT-fit framework (Human, Organization, Technology) to facilitate interdisciplinary work and participatory action research, while focusing on continuous training to address radical uncertainties such as the digital revolution and ecological transitions.

Finally, the project proposes research, training, and consultancy services to businesses and institutions, drawing inspiration from the Red Team methodology to develop scenarios that will enhance their ability to adapt to radical uncertainty.