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This interview with Lucie Morère is part of a series of exchanges conducted for the anniversary issue of Développement durable & territoires, which aims at retracing the history of the journal and to define some future perspectives. The young researcher, now a practitioner of public action, recalls the added-value of her participation to the editorial committee in the construction of her professional development. The interview highlights the double heuristic and political interest of the action-research agenda, which characterizes the journal.

This interview with Bruno Villalba and Bertrand Zuindeau was conducted by Rhoda Fofack-Garcia and Leslie Carnoye, to highlight the history, motivations and institutional conditions of the emergence of the journal Développement durable & territoires. The interview is part of a series of exchanges conducted in the context of the journal’s anniversary issue. Here, it is the crossed view of the journal’s « founding fathers » that prevails. The interview recalls the context and the issues - in terms of science and collective - that led to the creation of the journal and draws up a retrospective of the path taken since its genesis. From an initiative that was part of a group of discussions, initially more or less informal, to the launch of the DD&T network and then the journal, the trajectory of DD&T is part of an interdisciplinary approach that was introduced in response to the lack of institutional recognition of the importance of analyzing and addressing environmental issues, and in relation with the territory. Thus, the journal has resolutely contributed to bringing emerging debates on sustainability into the landscape of French-speaking research in the field of environmental social sciences. The stakes and evolutions specific to the publishing and editing sectors do not escape the overview made by the « founding fathers », as well as the future perspectives of a collective that has succeeded in maintaining its conviviality.

The 20th anniversary issue of Développement Durable & Territoires (Sustainability & territories) provides an opportunity to highlight the ambitions of the « Point de vue » (Viewpoints) section and to review its history. The section was conceived as an original one, aiming to allow the expression of « points de vue » on subjects or objects related to the editorial line of DD&T, in a freer format than that of standard scientific articles and/or from non-academic actors. This introduction looks back at the highlights of the section and sheds light on the type of publication it contains. The contributions of the section are highlighted, but also the difficulty inherent in the objective : in the end, few publications are by non-academic actors. This is why one of the prospects for the future is to publish more content in the form of interview transcripts, which is undoubtedly more conducive to the circulation of « points de vue ». This approach is initiated in this issue with the publication of three interviews reflecting three different points of view on the history and characteristics of the DD&T journal.

The purpose of this paper is to question the meaning of the ecosystem services (ES) approach and its usefulness for regional natural parks. The field work realized in the Park Scarpe-Escaut includes: an observational experience in a research project aiming at valuing several ES on the territory, 10 semi-directive interviews and the analysis of the park’s management documents. The study concludes that ES have important limits, whether they are considered as decision-aid tools or as communicational tools. The case of the park Scarpe-Escaut is interesting because it challenges the belief in the efficacy of ES and monetary arguments for biodiversity protection, spread by the new environmental pragmatists.

The notion of "strong sustainability" is being reassessed in different disciplines of the humanities and social sciences such as history (Quenet, 2016), geography (Chartier, 2016), but also ethics and political science. It obviously raises important epistemological questions about the integration of environmental issues into social sciences (Blanc et al., 2017). However, the distinction between "weak" and "strong" sustainability first emerged in ecological economics in the mid-1990s. Strong sustainability immediately became part of the interplay of actors and conflicts of legitimacy that still weigh on its heuristic scope, as well as on its ability to nurture the plurality of representations of social relations with the environment.

The notion of "strong sustainability" is being reassessed in different disciplines of the humanities and social sciences such as history (Quenet, 2016), geography (Chartier, 2016), but also ethics and political science. It obviously raises important epistemological questions about the integration of environmental issues into social sciences (Blanc et al., 2017). However, the distinction between "weak" and "strong" sustainability first emerged in ecological economics in the mid-1990s. Strong sustainability immediately became part of the interplay of actors and conflicts of legitimacy that still weigh on its heuristic scope, as well as on its ability to nurture the plurality of representations of social relations with the environment.