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Based on an empirical survey of rancher commitment in environmental programs in Southern Arizona, this paper analyzes the evolution of rangeland conservation practices and more broadly of natural resources management in semi-arid areas of the American West. Far from the image of the cowboy conquering and destroying the wilderness, which some environmental organizations still convey, it shows how ranchers get involved in ecological practices, enabling us to consider their social (re)valorization as conservation entrepreneurs empowered to co-produce ecological knowledge. In this perspective, the survey shows, (1) the way in which nature conservation programs no longer valorize the planning of 'wilderness areas', but rather collaborative programs based on working landscapes and, (2) the conditions for valorizing a kind of cowboy ecology that might contribute to the renewal of natural resource management and practices dedicated to nature conservation. The scientific originality of this paper is thus to outreach a 'political ecology of ranching', showing how the valorization of rancher knowledge and know-how fits into the renewal of rangeland ecological science and socio-economic transformations. It demonstrates that this ecological acknowledgment of ranching is due to the specific knowledge of the ranchers, which contributes solutions for the preservation of biodiversity that seem adapted to the environmental constraints of semi-arid areas. More broadly, it invites us to revisit the way in which cowboy ecology is now supported by administrative agents (and even environmentalists) to face ecological risks other than grazing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the economic efficiency of flood protection strategies to aid funding decisions of public bodies. The Brague river is a 68 km2 catchment located on the Mediterranean Sea shore in South East France. It experienced disastrous flash floods triggering costly damages and casualties in the communities of Biot and Antibes. Several possible flood protection strategies using conventional civil engineering measures or Nature-based solutions were tailored mixing engineering and participatory approaches. They were then assessed in terms of i) protection efficacy and avoided damage using numerical modelling, ii) environmental gains or alterations using an indicator on the morphological quality of the river, and iii) willingness-to-pay of the citizens for the various strategies, assessed both by top-down transfer methods, as well as by interviews of about 400 citizens. A dual cost-benefit analysis (CBA) was finally tailored to help the various decision makers involved in the management of the catchment in the context of the Gemapi law (management of aquatic environments and flood protection). A top-down CBA was performed to help national and regional stakeholders decide whether they would support the strategies. In the meantime, a bottom-up CBA was performed to capture the local perception of hazards, the social acceptability of various mitigation measures and to help the basin managers decide on the relevant strategy to be implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses, in these times of contestation of conventional agriculture and vertical planning, how a specific way of governing water scarcity for agricultural irrigation in the Marais poitevin area is structured. From the analysis of the elaboration of management schemes to the development of substitution reserves, the aim is to reveal the extent to which public action initiatives and the resulting developments oscillate between managing water scarcity by reducing its abstraction for irrigation, and maintaining an image of its seasonal abundance through the use of substitution reserves. The first part of this paper discusses how water management is ruled by the development of management schemes These schemes organise the management of water from the perspective of its summer scarcity based on two main measures: creation of substitution reserves to store the "abundant" winter water, reduction of the volumes that can be abstracted during the low-water period. Then, in a second step, based on two projects aimed at developing substitution reserves, the article analyses the trajectories of these two projects and their differentiating factors in terms of conflict, namely project governance, political context, timing and compensatory measures [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1980, the famous primatologist Kinji Imanishi published Shutaisei no shinkaron (Freedom in Evolution: Life as a subject, translated from Japanese into French in 2015 and re-edited in 2022). He develops "his evolutionary theory", in radical opposition to both Darwinian and Lamarckian theoretical frameworks, objecting to random variation within species and to the population approach to species. In his theory, the species is the actor of its own evolution: it takes controls of its destiny to which individuals conform homogeneously. This theory is opposed to a nominalist vision since it relies upon species realism, to random variations, to population approaches to living organisms and to the genetic reductionism of the time. Today the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis is emerging, a more integrative approach in the sense that it keeps away from genetic reductionism, while organisms partly participate in building the selective constraints to which the population is submitted. To a certain extent, organisms are actors to their evolution. Should we see there a link with Kinji Imanishi's ideas? This is what the present paper explores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Singapore, on 19 December 2020, a trendy restaurant served nuggets prepared with chicken meat grown by the company Eat Just. According to customers, this product was similar in taste and texture to 'conventional meat'. In the National Review, journalist Matthew Scully welcomes this innovation and emphasises its re-humanising character. The aim of our paper is to show that this innovation, described by the journalist as a 'civilisational milestone' is based on what Mauss called 'a merchant's moral'. Cultured meat refers to powerful economic issues and generates alliances that are more economic-political than ethical. Far from 'rehumanising' us, it leads instead to replacing the living work of humans and animals with the dead work of machines. In other words, it dehumanises us and enslaves us. To show this, we first question the notion of 'real meat' and the historical dynamics that have led this product to being part of a project of agriculture without breeding. We then question the links between these innovations and the 'defenders' of animals and the planet, and the representations of animals underlying these links. Finally, we show that the morality of the merchant who promotes cultured meat is opposed to the universal morality of gift that has been building our relationship with domestic animals for ten millennia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the notion of 'environmental subjectivities' developed by Arun Agrawal. Questioning how environmentally conscious subjects appear in regimes of conservation, the author advocates analyzing environmental policies from the perspective of the changing relations between marginalized localities and their institutions. This article confronts his approach with biocultural conservation which acknowledges environmental practices in these marginalized communities, without however delegating management to them. The case of the Seaflower Biosphere Reserve in Colombia, where artisanal fishermen have developed strong environmental identities while resisting conservation in everyday life, highlights the need to analyze plural and competing 'environmental subjectivities'. Built on the observation of the daily practices of fishermen, this article advocates for a re-politicized analysis of how 'environmental subjectivities' vary. Instead of describing the adoption of a common concern about the environment, it describes 'environmental subjectivities' as plural, contradictory, embedded in mechanisms of social distinction and negotiations between administrators and citizens at the margins who seek to participate in the government of the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of the environmental issue in French research institutions since the 1990's coincided both with a strong development of interdisciplinarity, and with an ever growing recourse to history, first as narrative, second as method. This paper aims to analyse this process from the perspective of a situated trajectory, that of the author, a historian who was progressively integrated into the epistemic community formed around the study of the relationships between natures, sciences, and societies, and led to share the heuristic dimension of historical narrative as a means of elucidating 'what happens to time' in the Anthropocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to question the reducing of the process of molecularization of life to its informational dimension from the 1970s and 1980s through reintegration of a chemical ontology of life. The characteristic feature of this chemical ontology is the centrality of production issues and a high proximity with industry. Our paper investigates the visibility and characterization of chemical molecularization of life from the birth and stabilization of a little-known scientific field, namely metabolic engineering. To this end our work combined a scientometric analysis of a corpus of 6,288 scientific papers, archives from a research center and a series of semi-structured interviews with several key figures in metabolic engineering. Through the study of this scientific field, we describe a chemical molecularization of life process, a) based on classical entities in biochemistry (enzymes, metabolic pathways), b) supported by innovation policies inspired from chemical engineering and c) involving scientists highly committed with industry, as in chemical engineering. Chemical molecularization has expanded in the shadow of informational molecularization, which is not ignored, but 'integrated' as resources for maintaining the competitiveness of existing industries, innovation policies and scientific practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is the third part of a reflective work on building a socio-hydrological approach. It focuses on the interdisciplinary dialogue between members of a research team associating the social and biophysical sciences. The key point is the construction of the interdisciplinary dialogue when it is not anchored in the previous experience of shared fieldwork. The creation of a framework to structure the dialogue is based on the premise that sharing experiences is crucial for negotiating a convergence between social and biophysical perspectives on reality. The first stage is to select an object on which to focus a collective analysis, in the present case the small-scale irrigation canals. The second stage consists in testing the framework during a three-day workshop. Third comes the collective negotiation of the analysis presented in the paper. Analysis of the construction, experimentation and evaluation process of the framework is considered an integral part of the interdisciplinary process. The dual approach of this contribution, i.e., experimentation and reflexivity, allows the analysis of the modalities of the interdisciplinary dialogue and questions the importance of frustrations in the progress of the interdisciplinary negotiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the emergence of cooperative photovoltaic projects in the Rhône-Alpes region (southeastern France) in the early 2010s marked by a national solar energy policy which at that time favoured the development of individual and private projects. The first part of the paper shows that in 2010 these projects emerged from converging national, regional and local dynamics and problematics. In the second part, the article analyzes the tribulations experienced by one of these collectives when it attempted to open the national incentive policy for photovoltaics to local issues which it did not take into account (redistribution and reinvestment of solar revenues, landscape and architectural innovation). Our analysis shows an innovative collective going through multiple trials in their attempt to initiate a territorial trajectory of energy transition that it deemed more equitable than the one then at work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the conditions of emergence and the content of energy transition policies in shrinking cities. International academic literature considers shrinkage either as a factor favorable to alternative public policies, particularly in the field of sustainable development, or as a check to their acting capacities due to the multifactorial crises that hit shrinking cities. This paper is based on a case study of Vitry-le-François, archetypal of a small shrinking town in France. Two hypotheses are considered. In the first, urban shrinkage appears as a favorable context for an energy transition policy when the intensity and severity of the shrinkage process leads to a major crisis. In the second, energy transition policies applied to shrinking cities involve a course of action that extends beyond the energy sector and affects the whole of the urban policies in order to address the shrinkage phenomenon itself. The first part of the paper analyses the role of urban shrinkage and of the crisis affecting the local social housing landlord in the emergence of energy transition policies. The second part describes the content of the local energy policy transition and shows that this policy is focused on the rescue of the heating network owned by the social housing landlord, and on economic redevelopment issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2017 and 2019 there took place the first two editions of a Summer Seminar entitled "About the 2 °C" dedicated to the challenges of interdisciplinarity in research and training courses on climate change. In this paper, we focus on the motivations that led to launching this initiative, as well as to the positioning and progress of these first two editions, which highlighted the scientific and socio-political challenges raised by the implementation of interdisciplinarity in research, particularly regarding an object as protean as climate change. Besides, this paper provides a good opportunity to take stock of the possible evolutions of this Summer Seminar, given the societal and scientific challenges associated with the understanding and management of the impact of global changes on our environment and our societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper highlights the main questions that were at the core of the seminar "Transdisciplinary Research in the Universities" held on September 14, 2018 at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. By producing hybrid scientific and socially relevant knowledge, transdisciplinary research contributes actively to social change and thus fulfills the major academic missions of research and contribution to society. However, transdisciplinary research suffers from a lack of recognition of its methodological rigor and scientific validity by the academic establishment. Taking this observation as an urgency, the seminar provided debate and reflection on the challenges specific to the implementation of transdisciplinary research in academic institutions: the legitimacy of the knowledge produced, the evaluation of the scientists' practice, and funding. This paper highlights the current obstacles and presents a concise overview of the reflective solutions generated during our debates. It also proposes some ideas that can support the full development of transdisciplinarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper questions the notion of 'local' as applied to food provisioning and its social, spatial and political dimensions. The aim is to understand how the different actors involved in local and 'localized' food circuits think, use and apply this notion. By following the diverse representations of locality – from the actors' discourses to urban planning texts – and the practices that implement them, the authors (an anthropologist, a geographer and an urban planner) examine the variability of this notion in order to analyze the way it is appropriated and reconfigured according to the arena in which it is mobilized. This text also aims to reflect on the limits and contributions of a multidisciplinary approach to these issues. The challenge is to show that the summing of these three approaches brings out new elements that do not emerge from each individual analysis. The notion of 'local' is part of an administrative, spatial and ideological reality that is being constantly recomposed according to political, social and economic processes. Questioning this notion by involving three dimensions and three disciplines, enables our reflection to avoid the impasses of scientific literature in which the meaning of what is local seems to be self-evident while remaining fixed in specific disciplinary frameworks, and to show its shifting nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 2014 and 2017, during three "Doctoriales" sessions, 84 young PhD candidates in humanities and social sciences were given the opportunity to present their work. Based on this experience, and a short survey done in 2017 by the authors, this paper aims to analyze the state of "young" research on water in human and social sciences. Even if most of the papers presented during the "Doctoriales" relate to geography and economy, overall 12 disciplinary fields were represented. A great variety of approaches and methods were also noted with, however, disciplinary specificities concerning a normative or constructivist approach, references mainly to Anglo-Saxon or French literature, and so on. General trends have also been identified, such as a widespread multidisciplinary approaches and, for most young researchers, the wish to remain in academia after their PhD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we shed light and analyze a very broad consensus that exists among economists regarding green investments. Beyond some divergences, mainstream and heterodox economists present green investments as a necessary and first condition to solve the ecological crisis. The main part of our research focuses on the pitfalls of what we call the Green Investment Paradigm. We highlight the reductionist, normative, ahistorical and depoliticizing vision, a consequence of a problem-solving framework. We finally discuss what is outside of the box and highlight some of the debates that need to be invested to contribute to a serious assessment of the causes of ecological crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper provides a critical review of the predatory journals phenomenon, which affects the field of scholarly communication in the Open Access era. It offers an analytical account of the debates, the research being done and the methodologies used, and discusses the multidimensional definition of predatory journals and of the new market for lists of 'legitimate' and 'illegitimate' journals. The article identifies the main ethical and scientific issues that predatory journals raise in the Open Access publishing era and reports on the contexts that lead researchers, both young and senior, to publish in these outlets. By linking predatory journals to the field of scholarly communication, the article highlights the main issues and establishes them as research topics. The article concludes with research avenues that contribute to the analysis of mutation in digital scholarly communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reports on an international conference on territorial studies which all distance themselves from an industrial narrative and turn to the social history of petrochemical concentrations —the "corridors"— which questions the ecological, health, environmental consequences and social aspects of their location and highlights the sources of contestation of the populations subject to these nuisances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Toulouse studies in political ecology (Atécopol) was created in October 2018 as an informal network of scientists. This group was later acknowledged as an "expertise platform" by the Toulouse University and CNRS Maison des sciences de l'homme et de la société. It brings together a diversity of disciplines and professional statuses, the aim being to create bridges between scientific knowledge and social and political debates at regional scales and beyond. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate, through the Atécopol initiative, both the positive outcomes and the challenges of adopting a political ecology posture and of claiming, as scientists, a moral position. Atécopol considers that researchers hold a responsibility both in the current state of ecological upheavals and in the failures to offer imaginaries beyond the technological paradigm. Atécopol therefore intends to transform local organizations and institutions within the research community, and more broadly within society as a whole. It emphasizes that even though individual agency is instrumental in ecological transformation, the central issue is to question the structures that reproduce the system of thinking and acting. The actions undertaken so far by Atécopol include knowledge circulation (training, communication, scientific events...), public interpellation (opinion columns, petitions...), as well as challenging research policies. The Atécopol experience meets growing success and is rich in challenges and lessons related to the democratic, political and moral dimensions of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The circular economy concept is currently being used in multiple ways. For some academics and organizations circular economy can be identified as a long term goal of achieved green growth while others argue that circular economy is fundamentally different from green growth. In this paper, we explore the conditions allowing green growth to be compatible with the concept of circular economy. Our model explicitly takes into account the possibility of a dematerializing of wealth production and raw material recycling through a green growth framework. We show that the reconciling of green growth with circular economy requires: (i) a fast decrease of the raw material intensity of economy far removed from present and past trajectories, (ii) the absence of a physical limitation to this decrease. This seems to indicate that green growth is essentially different from, and incompatible with the concept of circular economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates a participatory process set up in the Drôme river basin to get citizens to support the updating of the water management scheme. Some citizens were engaged at an early stage in selecting and structuring their own participatory process. Such co-engineering raised their awareness about the importance of these decisions, fostered social learning and triggered conditions for an efficient regulation. It clarified the links between participation and institutional governance. But co-engineering was abstract for participants. Co-engineering requires clear participation rules and sufficient awareness of the issues and vocabulary of participation. To conclude we propose adjustments to the co-engineering of participation according to the expectations and resources available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of large amounts of data requires using methods that combine a range of fields such as computer science, mathematics, statistics, etc. All of these methods useful for data processing form the basis of "data science". In this context, text mining approaches allow the discovery of new and useful knowledge for experts generally originating from different application areas (e.g., epidemiological surveillance, food security, etc.). This paper provides an overview of the use of text mining methods in various projects related to agriculture and health. A generic methodological approach is then proposed and discussed. This is based on three stages: (1) Data collection. Corpus acquisition from the Web can be done with queries on search engines or RSS feeds. (2) Extraction of terminology using text-mining approaches. Terminology is automatically extracted using different parameters of the BioTex tool (e.g., F-TFIDF-C and C-value measures) dealing with texts in English, French and Spanish. (3) Validation of terms with end-users and field experts based on different approaches (e.g., surveys, workshops, etc.). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On February 6, 2020, a symposium entitled "Sea and the Anthropocene", organized by H. Artaud, F. Chlous and É. Mariat-Roy was held at the auditorium of the Grand Gallery of the French National Museum of Natural History in Paris. The purpose of this event was to reflect on an issue that has now become crucial, although so far little explored in an interdisciplinary perspective by recent studies on the sea, i.e., the notion of the Anthropocene. The aim of the symposium was therefore to open up a debate head-on by questioning the late and relatively marginal nature of its application to the sea, and specifying the ways in which these anthropocenic seas are linked to environmental history, anthropology, art history, plastic arts and political science. In this report, we present the scientific background that fostered this event, the contribution of each of the papers as well as the main avenues of reflection opened up by the debates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the feedback from the project leaders on the management of interdisciplinarity involving 14 scientific projects (3 networks and 11 research projects) that are part of a program on the integrated management of animal health, and from researchers participating in the overall management of the program. The difficulties encountered by the project leaders relate to a need for acculturation among disciplines, to the equilibrium and mutual respect between disciplines within the project, to the lack of time dedicated to the scientific animation of the project, and to the difficulty of publishing interdisciplinary work. The level of interdisciplinarity varies among projects, from juxtaposition of several disciplines to their actual integration. Recommendations proposed to future project leaders at the various steps of a projet involve the co-design step, in order to facilitate the decentering of disciplinary questioning, the implementation step requiring an agile management, and the report step, in order to analyse how interdisciplinarity has shifted disciplinary lines and modified initial questions. Strengthening of interdisciplinary programs should prioritize the training of researchers in interdisciplinarity, provide support for the conception of interdisciplinary projects, and analyse the degree to which integration of disciplines was achieved in the projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an impressive literature on 'interdisciplinarity'. Nevertheless, few papers provide a descriptive taxonomy of the different forms of scientific work at the intersection of different kinds of knowledge. Those who tackle this issue adopt either a normative and internalist viewpoint in relation to a given discipline or the sociology of identity perspective.Moreover, the concept of 'trading zones' is so commonly used in the social sciences and beyond that it seems to be able to cover most of 'interdisciplinary' exchanges, but proves in fact to be insufficient. On the basis of fieldwork on complexity sciences, this article proposes to provide a descriptive taxonomy of 'interdisciplinary' scientific work, identifying five types described from interviews and archival citations: the frontier workers (a category that corresponds to what Galison has described with the 'trading zones' notion), the ambassadors (who work in multidisciplinary teams and help people from different disciplines to understand each other), the polyglots (who can 'speak' several languages and who often end up leading multidisciplinary teams), the dual nationals (who can 'speak' two languages and can conduct 'interdisciplinary' research alone or with others) and the translators (who apply one universal tool to several disciplines). We offer a critique of the term 'interdisciplinarity' and propose an alternative term: epistemic inter-culturalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For over three decades, the model of participatory irrigation management promoted by the government and donors faces severe difficulties. Considering that irrigation management has both social and technical dimensions, this paper uses political ecology and science and technology studies to show how public policy can assume many forms, depending on the material conditions it faces on the ground. Four irrigation systems in Cambodia are documented on the basis of qualitative interviews; these enabled us to show that water user associations emerge as irrigation management actors only if they can exert control over water sharing infrastructures that we call "anchor points". Whether water user associations play a significant role in irrigation management largely hinges on (1) the process followed for their establishment and the support they receive, (2) the process followed to design irrigation infrastructures and (3) the relations between the water user associations and other power holders. This paper highlights that a hybrid political ecology approach that would not only look at social structuring forces (e.g. power) but also at the material conditions of the environment (e.g. infrastructures) is particularly adapted to study irrigation sociotechnical dynamics, and notably the way water user associations and irrigators engage with their environment through a process of "inscription", that is of building "into infrastructures" their expectations about how these have to be used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction to this special issue on the politicization of the subsurface aims to analyse the multiple uses of the subsurface that are emerging due to global changes, and the conflicts about these uses, through the prism of the politicization of this environment. The paper starts from the specific nature of this environment for which no direct experience is possible and whose knowledge and utilization must therefore depend on techniques. This partly explains the particular forms taken by opposition to the uses of the subsurface, which range from population enlistment, eruptive social movements to radical criticism of capitalism. However, the uses of the subsurface and their contestation do not always lead to politicization, meaning that no public debate takes place about the choice of a technical option in terms of energy transition. Reading the articles in this special issue from the analytical standpoint of politicization, which implies that uses should be credible, governable and legitimate, this introduction shows the insufficient politicization of French subsurface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New mining exploration companies have entered the scene in France in the context of mining renewal. This paper analyses how private actors attempt to convince various publics about the future profitability of technological developments. We use the terms « promise engineering » to describe this activity. To understand the controversies that mining projects have spurred in France, we investigate the tensions between the promises designed for investors, and other promises addressed to the populations impacted by exploration projects and their future developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic research, policy reports and many agencies and organizations have focused on the role of cities in contributing to implement climate policies designed to mitigate, and adapt to, climate change. This led the French government to compel all local authorities responsible for over 20,000 inhabitants to adopt the so-called PCAETs (plans climat-air-énergie territorial/local climate, air and energy plans) by 2018. The purpose of our paper was to understand how these local plans seize on climate issues, by highlighting both the objectives they claim to achieve and the main ways used to reach them. First, we identified in the scientific literature the main levers available that enable cities to have an effect regarding climate change. Then, we compared these possibilities to the governance objectives of three middle-sized French cities assumed to have adopted ambitious PCAETs. We show that all three cities have energy saving and local coordination objectives, but that they act on only one of the three other levers they could theoretically mobilize (energy production, changes in infrastructure and modification of the urban structure). We also demonstrate that these cities implement their plan by attempting to extend the climate issues to the whole city council services and that they use labelling distinctions to motivate policy actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability transitions studies have been a dominant approach in academic literature in the last twenty years or so. However, several key shortcomings have been pointed out, among them a lack of spatial sensitivity. Therefore, this article uses the proximity approach, as developed by the French school, in the field of economic geography, to shed light on this spatial dimension. The article suggests a typology of the use of spatial processes in French-speaking literature over the last ten years. Then, it combines two approaches, the 'geography of transitions' and proximity, to investigate the case of the tensions which arose in the French region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes at the end of the 2000s regarding feed-in tariffs for biomass-based combined heat and power, and the subsequent creation of observatories producing spatial information at several levels (regional or below). Those observatories may be analyzed as a move to increase the proximity with the resource, i.e. to grasp its materiality and the weight of configurations, as well as multiscalar power struggles. In conclusion, the paper proposes some inputs on the geography of transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With British and French policy regimes that do not encourage cooperative energy projects, how can one explain the emergence of these initiatives over the past decade? Based on the analysis of two projects in Lorient and Nottingham, this paper tests the hypothesis of partnerships between local authorities and citizen groups as a tool to overcome the obstacles created by national policy regimes. In the case of Lorient, the author shows that the cooperation between the municipality and Bretagne énergies citoyennes (BEC) creates opportunities to mitigate the evolution of feed-in-tariffs. In the case of Nottingham the author shows that the initiative initially planned by Meadows Ozone Energy Services Limited (MOZES) is altered by the policy regime, as the partnership capacity between MOZES and Nottingham City Council is too weak to bypass the barriers established by the national regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the end of the 1990s, the Senegal office of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature launched an ambitious management programme for the conservation of the Saloum delta to consolidate its biosphere reserve label. The initial design involved a public-private co-management of the protected area, with a series of conservation and development activities being planned for 47 localities. Our paper focuses on the divergence between the intentions and objectives of the green NGO and the actual implementation of the plan, due to the social and political dynamics it was faced with. Our paper finally highlights the present and unexpected impacts of this conservation plan, which depart considerably from the technical and scientific rationality originally promoted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bioeconomy is becoming increasingly important in public policy, especially in the European Union and the USA. It is described either as a new biotechnological industrial revolution, or as a great transition toward the use of renewable resources, both of these through the development of 'biorefineries'. To organize the transition, agro-industry, and the chemical, wood and biotechnology industries are involved in intensive institutional work. This work aims to problematize the organization of this new industrial bioeconomy, its links with other sectors, and the regulation of the change. To do so, public policies support backcasting exercises and roadmap development. However, the history of this transition toward the use of renewable resources shows that similar problematizations were conducted in the past. We look at two historical periods. First, very similar promises to those of today were formulated in the 1930s, by the USA chemurgy movement. Second, during the 1980s, the chemical industry became interested in sugar following the oil crisis of the 1970s. During this period the problematization of the biorefinery as a structuring artefact emerged. In this paper, we review these two historical periods to interpret today's 'visions of the future' from a historical perspective. We conclude this study by comparing and contrasting former and current tensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environmental problems and the climate issue point to the responsibility of human activities in the disturbances of the global ecosystem. It appears that Earth's changes can no longer be set apart from those of society, as expressed by the notion of Anthopocene. Researchers in the natural and social sciences are now induced to work together on issues that have become shared. In this context I was asked as a sociologist to join an interdisciplinary team of researchers in Earth sciences, chemistry and engineering, to work on a project aiming to produce non-carbon hydrogen from waste of the iron and steel industry. This paper is based on fieldwork conducted as part of this project. Its purpose is to question what it is that natural sciences, in this case geology, are studying if we consider that an autonomous nature, independent of humans and of society, does not exist. Observation of geologists at work, mainly on their research field in the Alps, and the interviews I had with them, has led me to point out the intimate relationship that links them to the environment they are studying. This environment has little to do with some abstract natural world or with the global environment such as that of climate change for example. This definition of what is at stake in Earth sciences will impact on the understanding of environmental problems and on the collaboration between the natural and the social sciences that it implies nowadays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Societies are facing social ecosystemic crises which affect the highly anthropized and globalized Planet and which constitute major issues and a huge challenge for the future. Addressing these issues requires facing the very tough complexities of extensively anthropized ecosystems whose understanding demands interaction between the full range of environmental sciences (ESs), i.e. earth, life, human and societal sciences. Interdisciplinarity is not an option, but a structural constraint. The author presents a comprehensive interdisciplinarity facility which he designed within the French CNRS and implements since 2007 to address with this situation: the Human-Environment Observatories (Observatoires hommes-milieux, OHMs). Thirteen of these have been created in France and in other countries in 2019. In 2012 they were the French Governement's PIA1 laureate with the Labex DRIIHM (InterDisciplinary Research Facility on Human-Environment Interactions) for an 8 years funding which has just been renewed for 5 years (2020-2024). The OHMs are dedicated to the study of heavily anthropized sites hit by a "disrupting event" which has upset the ecological, economic and social balances that have developed over decades in the local socio-ecological conditions (for instance, a coalfield mine and its shutdown). In this paper, the author states the qualities needed for this interdisciplinary work in order to deal with these social ecological issues, and specifies the definition of multi-, inter- and trans-disciplinarity. He remarks that, within the OHMs, an "enlightened disciplinarity" spontaneously develops between all ESs due to a heuristic open-minded attitude called "indisciplinarity". Three examples of this mode of functioning are presented. They highlight the flexibility and simplicity of the process and its efficacy in developing links among scientists and between these and society in a sustainable development outlook. The OHMs facility provides one of the possibilities to take up the challenge of confronting the hypercomplex ecosytemic crises that arise in highly anthropised socio-ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geodiversity, as evoked in this paper, refers to geographical, not to geological diversity. The interdisciplinary approach adopted here aims to point out that the forming of geodiversity follows the same patterns as biological and cultural diversification processes. Darwinian evolutionism explains biological diversification through Earth's ecology, by the isolation of populations and their adaptation to the environment. But during the peopling of the Earth by human populations, their ways of life – geographical techniques mainly related to habitat, food and mobility – took the place of evolution for Homo sapiens, consequently allowing the active adaptation of human populations through the alteration of their environment and the control of isolation owing to geographically-linked techniques and to territories. Humankind thus enters history as a result of its geographical activity, geography being considered here as the science that studies the footprints (or graphics) produced by human populations on Earth (Geo). This process gives birth to Geodiversity, i.e. the diversity of human geographies at regional scales reflecting the diverse and sustainable ways of living on Earth. The peopling of Austronesian Oceania and its consequent cultural diversification such as the adaptation of the Vezo people to the marine environment of the southwest coast of Madagascar, are examples of how ways of life and territories may produce geodiversity. Preserving and inventing geodiversity provide the means to live sustainably on Earth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our paper is a reflexive return on an interdisciplinary and participative research program on climate change and its impacts in Burgundy. This work involved the joint participation of researchers in social sciences and in climatology and is also based on exchanges with stakeholders of water resources. To gain knowledge on past climate, scientists use proxies such as tree rings, CO2 levels in ice, dates of grape harvest, etc. We suggest that proxies may find a new place in knowledge construction on current climate change. Climate science can discover in other disciplines such as ecology evidence of recent changes, which represent proxies of climate change. Regular notes on changes recorded by citizens in their daily life environment are also a rich source of proxy indices on climate change; they contribute to knowledge on daily life and practice. Empirical and scientific knowledge, usually reputed to be wide apart, converge on the fact that climate is mainly appraised by proxy indicators. We suggest that connecting knowledges at a local scale will help give insight into climate change. To closely associate the global climate model to local knowledge and real-life experiences is a lever to adapt locally to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beekeeping is facing challenges worldwide and management of honeybee biodiversity is a key stake. In France, some set ups aim at conserving local honey bees whereas prevailing model selects honeybees for production first. The Corsican honeybee have a unique situation as the stakeholders both aim at maintaining and making selection of the local ecotype, with an aim of honey production with bees adapted to the island apiary conditions. This paper aims at questioning how such a set-up has been built. Our work is based on interviews of beekeeping stakeholders. We first show the strong links between the local ecotype management and the protected designation of origin for the honey. We then show that selection criteria are not specific to the local conditions, whereas the activity in general appears very connected to those conditions. We show that the set up for selection of the Corsican bee produces (and is expected for) other elements then the single genetic aspects. We show that the management of local bee population, rather than combining two genetic management orientations, combines several items of interests beyond the single genetic management aspects, and should be comprehended in its milieu (biogeographical, sociotechnical, socioeconomics, etc.) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate various so-called 'decision aiding' practices based on 'economic arguments' used to design and implement environmental public policies. We analyse these practices to determine whether they truly provide an aid to decision-making. We tackle this issue using a case-based inquiry applied to the 'red muds' of Gardanne. This case exemplifies practices, which claim to take advantage of economic science, but are in fact based on fallacious rationales incapable of meeting even minimal rigorousness and scientificity requirements. We do not claim to produce quantitative evidence that our observations are generalizable. Rather, we claim that our empirical elements can be used to articulate ideas whose generality should be investigated in future quantitative studies: (i) decision aiding, when applied to environmental public policies, is barely, if at all, based on economic science; (ii) it is nevertheless overrun with economic vocabulary, which suggests that (iii) the legitimacy of environmental public policies can be undermined by decision aiding practices which, for lack of a robust anchorage in economic science, weaken the possible justification of these policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The debate about the notion of energy transition questions the lack of consideration by public authorities of the discrepancy between household heating practices and the rules put forward by these same authorities. This paper describes the main results of recent surveys and proposes to highlight them by examining the evolution of comfort standards in housing and the way they are produced. Mobilizing the social transaction theory enabled us to reveal the difficulty for housing policies to develop shared positions. We showed that household practices, which result in house heating temperatures actually higher than the 19 degrees norm, form a real critique of the energy transition theory. In being unable to have the norm accepted in household behavior despite the urgency of controlling the demand for energy, the energy transition theory proves to be unrealistic in overlooking the mechanisms of social practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Risk as a collective experience and public issue has redefined the politics and structure of contemporary societies. But risk is also, and increasingly so, an object of calculation and scientific assessment. These two phenomena are in many ways inseparable, but have seldom been analysed jointly. By ignoring the rise of a science of risk analysis and the institutionalization of risk-analytic techniques in government, and emphasizing science's loss of scientific authority, seminal theories of risk such as Beck's Risk society even constitute them as paradoxical. Moving beyond the seeming contradiction between these two faces of contemporary societies — a risk society and a risk analysis society — the paper shows that the capacity to engage with the sociotechnical controversies that are typical of the former, is indeed a characteristic of the regulatory sciences that pertain to the latter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Civil society is being faced nowadays with unprecedented and global problems expressed for example by the seven societal challenges of the European research framework program. Sciences are called upon to clarify and find sustainable solutions. Yet they remain helpless in the face of the highly transverse nature of the issues. The latter concern society as a whole, including non-profit civil society organizations, who are experimenting new solutions and for whom access to research facilities is a necessity. Developing interfaces is therefore crucial. Science Shops are entities that carry out scientific research, usually free of charge, on behalf of citizens and local civil society. The term science is used in its broadest sense, including the social and human sciences, as well as natural, physical and engineering sciences. How Science Shops are structured is dependent on the local context. We describe here the creation process of our Science Shop carried out during an 18-month prefiguration study. We conducted a sociological survey followed by a participatory process where researchers and civil society organizations worked together in order to co-create the Science Shop of the Hauts-de-France region. We focused our paper on the survey results intended for researchers, students and civil society organizations in order to test their interest in the project. They demonstrated the positive response to our science shop, and more generally to this type of participatory tool among all the stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of "project", that usually implicitly refers to "scientific project", has spread invasively in the daily life of academic scientific research. This noticeably started in 2000, after the European Council promoted through the Lisbon strategy the allocation of research funds on a competitive basis, for example opening calls for project proposals and providing financial support to top-ranked ones only. Nevertheless, project proponents rarely question what a project actually is. Three non-exclusive definitions of the concept are proposed in this paper. First, a scientific project can be "essential", when it agrees with the way scientists consider how science works in theory and satisfies personal methodological requirements. Second, a scientific project can be "aspirant", when it is specifically formatted to fit project selection criteria, those of open calls and funding programs for example, and in order to outcompete rival proposals. Third, a scientific project can be "coopetitive", when it is a mean to boost personal carreer in an evaluation context mostly based on quantitative scientific production. Theoretically, it can be expected that today's scientists manage a "multiple" project that would combine various objectives corresponding to these types of project. However, the coexistence of potentially antagonist objectives (e.g. quality versus quantity) could raise internal conflicts. Then, regaining personal balance might require to selectively drop some objectives. Depending on those that are maintained, this could impact the quality of future science work as well as the role that science could play in societal debates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific discourses are influenced by worldviews and values shared by scientific communities. In terms of sustainable development, as for other subjects, the production, dissemination and reception of knowledge structure the discursive universe of academic activities. This paper provides a mapping of the field of academic interactions based on a sample of 93 influential intellectuals active in sustainable development thinking in Latin America, from a review of more than ten thousand citations over a period of forty years (1972-2012). The software Gephi was used to draw figures that highlight these networks along three separate periods of time. A first period runs from 1970 and the start of modern environmental concerns until 1987 and the publication of the very influential Brundtland Report. A second period (1987-2002) covers the period of a flourishing institutional concept of sustainable development until the Johannesburg Conference. And the third one runs until the Rio+20 Summit in 2012. This quantitative analysis is complemented by a qualitative analysis of the works and relations of the most influential authors. The results show a gradual structuring of the discursive field on the subcontinent. We are able to trace the main relations between authors in Latin America and outside, mostly to the US and Europe. Our results also show that many academics in the sub region elaborated critical discourses that developed in synergy with various social movements that strive for justice and socio-environmental sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of industrial disaster risks was raised at the earliest stages of industrialization and has been addressed, particularly since the 1970s, by European regulations, i.e. the Seveso directives and their national adaptation. Following the disaster at the AZF plant in Toulouse (September 2001), a specific text was adopted by the French State: The Major Technological and Natural Risks Act, commonly known as the "Bachelot Act" (July 2003). This act aims, notably, to implement Technological Risks Prevention Plans (PPRTs) in "upper-tier Seveso" sites. In this perspective, we deal with the shaping of a PPRT in an industrial port area, that of Le Havre-Gonfreville. The analysis of the conditions, forms and effects of the setting-up of the PPRT leads to two conclusions. On the one hand, we observe that the notion of "economic acceptability", which allows companies to challenge administrative requirements, although regulatory, is not defined by any specific regulation. As a result, the Bachelot Act designed to protect urban areas, ultimately creates a tension between Seveso and non-Seveso economic activities. On the other hand, our paper shows that, in order to defuse this tension, local decision-makers engaged in a process of distorting the Bachelot Act, which was accepted by the State through local arrangements. In the end, in such an industrial port area, the Bachelot Act had the effect of tightening risk prevention, but not without coming up against the limits set by the undefined notion of economic acceptability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2009 wood stumps are considered as one of the recognized sources of biomass to be used in the process of national energy transition in France. So far, stump harvesting has only been implemented in the Landes area in the southwestern part of the country. The aim of this paper is to identify the mechanisms underpinning this innovation. For this we used an analytical framework inspired by Science and Technology Studies. We show how the local pulp and paper industry has ensured the safety of its own supply agendas by promoting adjustments to renewable energy policies. These same firms took advantage of the two major storms which occurred in 1999 and 2009. Our study traces the development of a "local "wood energy policy aimed at consolidating well established firms and intensifying silvicultural management practices, which raise a number of questions regarding the true potential for energy transition gained from such a system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates, from a sociological perspective, the emergence of nutritional (epi)genomics, a field of research that has emerged from the Human Genome Project and whose aim is to renew the diagnosis, prevention and management of foodrelated chronic pathologies. By identifying more precisely the genetic and epigenetic risk factors at the individual level, this would indeed lead to the development of personalized nutrition. As such, it is often presented as a scientific revolution. The first part of the paper defines this research field by discussing its main scientific issues and presenting its medical applications that consist in biotechnology which has been available on the market over the past decade (nutrigenetic testing) as well as a public health program which is currently being drawn up (the "first 1000 days" initiative). Then it focuses on its social, ethical and political consequences as it could induce new forms of responsibility at the individual, intergenerational and political scales, and also heighten the medicalization of food and, consequently, its individualization. Finally the paper tries to understand to what extent the field of nutritional (epi)genomics may contribute to (re) consider the dialogue between social, biomedical and life sciences regarding the food and health relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can incomprehension between scientific disciplines be dealt with? Anne-Françoise Schmid's work was central to the conference on "Generic philosophy at the heart of contemporary science" held on September 23, 2014 at Mines ParisTech. Our paper mobilises the wealth of contributions produced for this conference to answer the issue of interdisciplinary understanding as addressed in A.-F. Schmid's work by bringing into dialogue these contributions and Einstein's text on ether and relativity. Inspired by Foucault's genealogical approach, the paper devises an artificial dialogue which highlights the contribution of fiction in the elaboration of scientific concepts, and thus illustrates the usefulness of a "generic space" for the creation of common concepts proposed by A.-F. Schmid's generic epistemology. Einstein explains how the concept of ether not only stimulated the imagination of physicists but also actually helped form theories of physics until the concept was abandoned. Einstein's grasp of the construction of the theories that preceded relativity helps us understand the contemporary scientific potential of generic epistemology. The article concludes with the proposal of a four-dimensional topography of this generic space ("disciplinary depth", "epistemological length", "disciplinary linking" and "epistemological conceptualisation") that includes the concepts of generic epistemology ("collective intimacy", "Poincaré criterion", "dynamic matrix" and "integrative object"). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Faced with new touristic practices, the evolution of public structures and the (re)structuring of mountain territories, a key issue for development rests on tourism diversification and, presumably, reorganisation of touristic areas. Considered for decades for their sole touristic and leisure vocation, mountain territories are nowadays the focus of decisions to reorganise their socio-economic, environmental and cultural sectors. The existing mono-centred production model, focussing on a single type of activity, often at a single site is being questioned. In this context the valorisation process of heritage resources often appears as a key pointer in analyses dealing with a territorial approach to territory development. Based on the analysis of a series of decisions regarding territorial excellence and innovation - the Pôle d'Excellence Rurale (PER) set up in 2011 in the Neouvielle massif, French Pyrenees - the paper questions the potential of heritage considered as a resource to foster a new tourism production system for mountain territories. From a detailed qualitative survey of governance logics and the resulting interactions between the players involved, the paper highlights the various types of regulations which have led to diverting the heritage valorisation objective, thus making any attempt at a tourism diversification strategy illusory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Amoco Cadiz oil spill on the coasts of northern Brittany in March 1978 marked history in several ways. In particular, it aroused an unprecedented mobilization of scientists in the natural sciences. While previous oil spills had given rise to attempted legal actions carried solely by the Breton association for environmental conservation, this time the scientific dynamics and the mobilization of local actors joined forces to undertake and pursue a legal action aimed at recognizing the oil spill damages. What motivations pushed them to participate in this action? Interviews showed that they felt concerned by a range of damages and were driven by multiple objectives, both moral and intimate, as inhabitants and scientists. They described their involvement as activist and engaged in political issues and considered it as self-evident. However, twenty years later when the Erika oil spill occurred, scientific circles seemed to be confined to scientific follow-up programs, much to the astonishment of their elders. They sought a certain impermeability of their activities towards political and judicial circles. How did the scientists envisage their role? In this process-oriented dynamic, how did they apply their role to producing scientific information? From interviews with them, our paper analyzes the plurality of "attachments" embedded in each situation of choice and ordeal: political and moral foundations, interests and success objectives of action for change, intimate attachments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]