Célina Morilhat

Address

Maison de la Recherche, Jean Jaurès University 5, Allées A. Machado – 31058 TOULOUSE Cedex 1

Email

celina.morilhat@univ-tlse2.fr

Personal Website

www.linkedin.com/in/célina-morilhat-436122232

PhD thesis: Society and Environment in Auvergne in the 18th and 19th Centuries: The Textile Proto‑industry in Cunlhat

Supervision : Jean-Michel Minovez

Cunlhat is a small town on the Livradois plateau located roughly within a triangle formed by Clermont‑Ferrand, Thiers and Ambert. It overlooks an area composed of towns, villages and countryside of the mid‑mountain Auvergne region, with altitudes ranging between 670 and 730 m at its centre and reaching more than 1000 m. Its geographical situation and the natural and social conditions of its territory allowed, in the Modern period, the development of certain human activities, notably a textile activity centred on wool processing carried out alongside agricultural work.

The aim of this research is to study a town which, in the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries, occupied an important place in the Auvergne textile industry. It seeks to understand the mechanisms of proto‑industry at the local level, in a very small area that has been little studied despite a substantial archival collection. It also aims to describe the relationships between the various actors of this proto‑industry, whether local or geographically more distant, as well as the circuits they used for commercialisation.

The interest of the topic lies in a multidisciplinary and socio‑ecosystemic approach in which historical contextualisation is combined with geographical questioning. It involves taking into account the environmental dimension of the subject and human–environment relationships by examining the complexity of the notion of resources (natural, human, knowledge, commercial networks…), their uses and, where relevant, their transformation within a productive system.

In summary, the aim is to show the full involvement of a local population which, living in a mountainous area with poor soils, made the best possible use of the natural resources available to it but, due to social and environmental issues, had to develop strategies in order to survive.