Introduction of the Laboratory

Laboratory Overview

LISST - the Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Solidarities, Societies, Territories is one of the largest interdisciplinary social science research units in the Toulouse area. The LISST brings together anthropology, economy, geography, regional planning and sociology, focusing on the question of how social bonds are built, passed on, strained and reinvented across societies and territories.

What we study

The LISST's research focuses on solidarities in the broadest sense: the social bonds that hold communities together, how these bonds are built, transmitted across generations, and how they are mobilised around shared resources and places. We study these bonds where they are strong but also where they are contested, unequal, or breaking down.

Our work is rooted in contemporary transformations and pressures such as public-health crises, economic and political instability, migration, environmental change, and the erosion of trust in democratic institutions. These shape how territories remain liveable, how people relate to one another, to their environment and to non-human life, and how the social fabric as a whole holds together or falls apart.

Our fieldwork covers work, family, education, community organisations, collective action, migration, and public policy across rural, urban and peri-urban areas. This diversity of terrains – both disciplinary and geographical – is part of what defines the LISST's approach.

Research structure

Interdisciplinarity has been central to the LISST since its creation. Research is organised into four research teams, each with their own disciplinary core, and six cross-cutting themes that bring together members across teams and, in several cases, with partner teams in France and abroad.

Four research teams

• CAS - Centre for Social Anthropology
• CERS - Networks, Experience and Society Research Collective
• CIEU - Interdisciplinary Centre for Urban Studies
• Rural Dynamics

Six cross-cutting themes

• Writing(s) in the Social Sciences
• Envies - Environment and Societies
• Globalisation, Mobilities, Circulations
• Life Courses and Inequalities
• Heritage(s)
• Research and Social Demand

An international laboratory

LISST members carry out fieldwork and doctoral supervision across Europe, Africa, the Americas and Asia, and take part in research networks and joint programmes with partner teams worldwide. The laboratory is part of the LabEx SMS (Structuration des Mondes Sociaux) - a consortium of twelve Toulouse research units - which also supports the lab's outreach magazine, Mondes Sociaux, published in French.

Teaching & doctoral training

LISST members contribute to several Master's programmes at Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès, Institut National Universitaire Champollion, ENSFEA, and EHESS, as well as to the curriculum of the Purpan School of Engineering. The laboratory also hosts doctoral researchers working across all four teams, with most seminars and coursework conducted in French.

Visiting researchers & international collaboration

The LISST welcomes visiting researchers and invited professors from partner institutions in France and abroad, hosted under a formal agreement with the CNRS or the Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès and sponsored by a permanent member of the laboratory. Enquiries about a research stay, a joint project or a funding call should be addressed well ahead of time to the contacts below.

• Research stays & collaboration agreements – administration-lisst@univ-tlse2.fr

How to find us

The LISST is based at the Maison de la Recherche, Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès, Mirail campus, Toulouse, France.