A too modern wild: searching for the object of contemporary conservation science. Ethnography of conservation projects in French-speaking Europe.

Abstract

The ambition of this research project is to try to understand the contemporary tensions affecting conservation science on the basis of case studies that are in direct opposition to each other in terms of their relationship with modernity: some using technology to improve conservation in a sort of cybernetic-wild project, others trying on the contrary to prioritise the wild character of biodiversity. These two approaches seem to me to share a desire to respond to the inadequacies of modern conservation science by proposing a radical reform of both its means and its ends. At this stage, the research is structured around 3 main theoretical axes: 1.Breaking or continuing chronology: the position of these conservation projects in relation to history 2.Modernity as a quality: do these conservation projects continue or alter the modern gesture? 3.Revealing nature: what main role do these conservation projects give to conservation science, revealing nature or hiding it