38 research outputs found
Lâinstitut de Belleville. Expansion et dĂ©clin de la recherche sur le contrĂŽle biologique au Canada, 1909-1972
Au Canada, la recherche sur le contrĂŽle biologique a bĂ©nĂ©ficiĂ© dâun appui important depuis les dĂ©buts de la recherche en entomologie Ă©conomique. En plus de disposer dâun environnement institutionnel stable depuis lâĂ©tablissement du laboratoire de Belleville, en Ontario, en 1929, ce domaine de recherche a occupĂ© une place importante dans la programmation scientifique du ministĂšre fĂ©dĂ©ral de lâAgriculture jusquâĂ la fin des annĂ©s 1960. Lâappui des autoritĂ©s scientifiques au contrĂŽle biologique prĂ©sente toutefois des paradoxes importants. En effet, au lendemain de la seconde Guerre Mondiale, Ă une Ă©poque oĂč lâentomologie Ă©conomique repose de façon quasi exclusive sur lâemploi dâinsecticides organochlorĂ©s, la recherche en contrĂŽle biologique bĂ©nĂ©ficie de la construction de nouveaux laboratoires. Certains auteurs ont expliquĂ© un tel dĂ©veloppement en invoquant lâautonomie des chercheurs canadiens, sans toutefois problĂ©matiser cette notion. Cet article vise Ă dĂ©montrer la dynamique institutionnelle sous-tendant lâacquisition dâune marge de manoeuvre par les entomologistes canadiens pour mener des recherches en fonction de leurs intĂ©rĂȘts. Nous examinerons particuliĂšrement le rĂŽle de certains acteurs comme les services entomologiques Ă©trangers et les industries forestiĂšre et papetiĂšre dans la constitution de compĂ©tences canadiennes en contrĂŽle biologique. De mĂȘme, nous verrons comment les interventions de ces acteurs ont entraĂźnĂ© une reconfiguration institutionnelle de la recherche en contrĂŽle biologique en agriculture et en foresterie, reconfiguration qui sâest soldĂ©e par la fermeture de lâInstitut de Belleville en 1972.Ever since the beginnings of economic entomology in Canada, research in biological control has drawn substantial support from the Federal Department of Agriculture. Enjoying a stable institutional environment with the establishment of the Dominion Parasite Laboratory in Belleville, Ontario, in 1929, biological control has also occupied an important position on the research agenda of the Department until the late sixties. Support from the scientific authorities was nevertheless fraught with important paradoxes. For example, research laboratories in biological control were built at a time when North American economic entomologists relied almost exclusively on synthetic chemical compounds like DDT. For some historians of science, the autonomy of Canadian entomologists explains the growth of this research program in the aftermath of World War II. However, the autonomy of the scientific community is a notion that is taken for granted in these historical explanations. In this article, I will demonstrate the institutional dynamic underlying the autonomy of Canadian entomologists in pursuing a research agenda suited to their interests. I will pay close attention to the role of certain actorsâforeign entomological services and the forest and pulp and paper industriesâin the rise of a Canadian expertise in biological control. Aswell, I will show how their interventions forced a reorganization of research on the biological control of insect pests in agriculture and in forestry, and how this reorganization eventually entailed the dismantling of the Belleville laboratory in 1972
Ralph H. Estey, Essays on the early history of plant pathology and mycology in Canada, Toronto, McGill-Queen's University Press, 1994, 384Â p.
Foresterie scientifique et reforestation : lâĂtat et la production dâune « forĂȘt Ă pĂąte » au QuĂ©bec dans la premiĂšre moitiĂ© du xxe siĂšcle
Cet article examine lâessor de la foresterie au QuĂ©bec pour dĂ©crire les modalitĂ©s par lesquelles lâĂtat utilise lâactivitĂ© scientifique afin dâexercer un contrĂŽle sur son territoire. En nous intĂ©ressant Ă une pratique â la reforestation â et Ă une institution â la pĂ©piniĂšre provinciale de Berthierville â, nous proposons une lecture du dĂ©veloppement de la foresterie scientifique au QuĂ©bec oĂč la reconfiguration du paysage forestier permet la mise en place dâun ordre naturel et social. Pour ce faire, nous situons la pĂ©piniĂšre de Berthierville Ă la jonction de deux rĂ©seaux : un premier qui fournit le ministĂšre des Terres et ForĂȘts avec un personnel qualifiĂ© et une connaissance technique, et un second qui situe la reforestation au centre dâune stratĂ©gie pour rĂ©cupĂ©rer le territoire abandonnĂ© au mouvement de colonisation et le ramener Ă un usage productif. Lâexamen des activitĂ©s scientifiques du ministĂšre des Terres et ForĂȘts dans la premiĂšre moitiĂ© du xxe nous indique comment la reforestation, une pratique centrale de la foresterie scientifique au QuĂ©bec, appelle une reprĂ©sentation spĂ©cifique de la forĂȘt en regard de lâessence quâelle promeut â lâĂ©pinette blanche â et un façonnement tout aussi spĂ©cifique du paysage forestier. La dimension normative de cette pratique et de cette essence se rĂ©vĂšle dans le procĂšs de reconquĂȘte des terres abandonnĂ©es et dans un travail dâencadrement des activitĂ©s de colonisation.This article looks at the development of scientific forestry in Quebec in order to explain in detail the ways in which the State uses scientific activity to exercise control over its territory. By focusing on one practice â reforestation â and one institution â the provincial nursery in Berthierville â, we propose an interpretation of the development of scientific forestry in Quebec according to which the reconfiguration of the forest landscape facilitated the establishment of a natural and social order. To do so, we situate the Berthierville nursery at the junction between two systems : one that provided the Department of Lands and Forests with trained staff and technical knowledge ; and a second that placed reforestation at the heart of a strategy to reclaim land lost to settlement efforts and return it to productive use. The study of the Department of Lands and Forestsâ scientific activities during the first half of the 20th century illustrates how reforestation, a central practice of scientific forestry in Quebec, provided a specific representation of the forest based on the tree species that was promoted â the white spruce â and an equally specific shaping of the forest landscape. The normative aspect of this practice and this species is revealed in the process of reclaiming abandoned land and the regulating of settlement efforts
Sortir lâhistoire des sciences et des techniques de leur contexte national : limites et dĂ©fis du comparatisme
Si les historiens des sciences et des techniques au Canada recourent frĂ©quemment Ă la dĂ©marche comparative, cette production historiographique gagnerait Ă ne pas se contenter de juxtaposer et de soumettre Ă un questionnaire commun des expĂ©riences nationales comme elle le fait trĂšs souvent. AprĂšs avoir prĂ©sentĂ© les avantages et les dĂ©savantages de la dĂ©marche comparative, lâauteur expose ici deux propositions mĂ©thodologiques inspirĂ©es de lâhistoire environnementale pour ancrer la dĂ©marche comparative en histoire des sciences et des techniques dans une approche critique de la notion de nation. Pour cesser de confĂ©rer Ă la nation un point de vue privilĂ©giĂ© dans lâanalyse historique, lâhistoire comparĂ©e devra situer la nation dans un enchevĂȘtrement dâĂ©chelles ou en dĂ©montrer le caractĂšre construit.Historians of Canadian science and technology frequently resort to the comparative method, but this historiographic production should not simply juxtapose national experiences or submit them to a common questionnaire, as it often does. After presenting the advantages and the disadvantages of the comparative method, the author offers two methodological proposals inspired by environmental history so as to introduce a critical approach to the idea of nation into the comparative method. In order to stop conferring upon the nation a favoured point of view in historical analysis, comparative history must situate the nation among various scales or demonstrate its constructed character
Introduction. Les rapports sociaux Ă la nature : lâhistoire environnementale de lâAmĂ©rique française
Biorégionalisme, commerce agricole et propagation des insectes nuisibles et des maladies végétales : les conventions internationales phytopathologiques, 1878-1929
De la convention contre le phylloxĂ©ra signĂ©e Ă Berne en 1878 Ă la convention internationale pour la protection des plantes de 1929, de nombreux pays nĂ©gocient et ratifient une sĂ©rie dâaccords internationaux pour prĂ©venir la propagation Ă lâĂ©chelle mondiale de maladies des plantes et dâinsectes nuisibles aux cultures, et soulager ainsi les agricultures nationales. Lâadoption de ces conventions paraĂźt ĂȘtre le point culminant de lâintĂ©gration de trois processus dâinternationalisation. En effet, lâintensification du commerce international, « lâunification microbienne » du monde et lâinternationalisme scientifique au cours de la pĂ©riode Ă©tudiĂ©e suggĂšrent que les conventions phytopathologiques incarnent la fusion dâune communautĂ© internationale Ă©conomique, biotique et scientifique. Il nous apparaĂźt toutefois que câest dâabord et avant tout un ordre bio-gĂ©opolitique qui se matĂ©rialise, un ordre oĂč des phytopathologistes et des entomologistes de lâEmpire britannique et des Ătats-Unis remettent en question « lâinternationalisme » des spĂ©cificitĂ©s environnementales et Ă©conomiques de lâagriculture europĂ©enne continentale incarnĂ©es dans les conventions internationales. Dans cet article, nous analysons les modalitĂ©s de mise en forme de ces entitĂ©s bio-gĂ©opolitiques et les controverses et nĂ©gociations entourant lâĂ©laboration des conventions phytopathologiques internationales sous lâĂ©gide de lâInstitut international dâagriculture en 1914 et 1929.StĂ©phane CASTONGUAY, Bioregionalism, Agricultural Trade and the Diffusion of Pest Insects and Plant Diseases: a History of International Phytopathological Conventions (1878-1929) From the 1878 Phylloxera International Convention of Bern to the 1929 International Convention on Plant Protection of Rome, a series of international conventions sought to relieve national agricultural industry from âforeign parasitesâ. The succession of phytopathological conventions seemed to epitomize the coalescence of an international economic, biotic and scientific community. What actually coalesced was a bio-geopolitics wherein plant pathologists and economic entomologists from North America and the British Empire questioned the so-called internationality of the environmental and economic specificities of Continental European agriculture, embodied in âinternationalâ conventions. This paper analyzes the negotiations and controversies surrounding these conventions. It relates these difficulties to the constitution of exclusive bio-geopolitical spaces based on scientific discourses that defined local crop protection practices and species introduction histories in economic and diplomatic terms. Although an international phenomenon, the dissemination of insects and diseases provided a field of cooperation and standard practices on a strictly regional albeit transnational basis that pitted bio-geopolitical entities against each other
British ghost acres and environmental changes in the Laurentian forest during the nineteenth century
This article explores the consequences of the environmental transformations of the Laurentian Valley on the timber trade uniting the Province of Canada and the industrialization of Great Britain during the nineteenth century. The notion of ghost acres used to describe the ecological footprint of resource consumption from abroad is extended to accommodate landscape transformations and enrich our understanding of the environmental impacts of imperial trade. Moving beyond the mere calculation of a surface area to assess the ecological ghost acres of British industrialization, we reconstitute the exchange circuits of wood products, from the extraction sites of different forest areas of the Laurentian Valley to their final destination in the British market, to identify the environmental consequences resulting from the insertion of the colonial forest economy into imperial trade networks. We also explore the adaptation of the British market to the material differences of North American pine and spruce compared with the familiar timber from northern Europe and how this, in turn, shaped the geography of extraction
A collaborative model to implement flexible, accessible and efficient oncogenetic services for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer : the C-MOnGene study
Medical genetic services are facing an unprecedented demand for counseling and testing for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC) in a context of limited resources. To help resolve this issue, a collaborative oncogenetic model was recently developed and implemented at the CHU de Québec-Université Laval; Quebec; Canada. Here, we present the protocol of the C-MOnGene (Collaborative Model in OncoGenetics) study, funded to examine the context in which the model was implemented and document the lessons that can be learned to optimize the delivery of oncogenetic services. Within three years of implementation, the model allowed researchers to double the annual number of patients seen in genetic counseling. The average number of days between genetic counseling and disclosure of test results significantly decreased. Group counseling sessions improved participants' understanding of breast cancer risk and increased knowledge of breast cancer and genetics and a large majority of them reported to be overwhelmingly satisfied with the process. These quality and performance indicators suggest this oncogenetic model offers a flexible, patient-centered and efficient genetic counseling and testing for HBOC. By identifying the critical facilitating factors and barriers, our study will provide an evidence base for organizations interested in transitioning to an oncogenetic model integrated into oncology care; including teams that are not specialized but are trained in genetics
La réhabilitation des riviÚres urbaines au Québec
Depuis les annĂ©es 1970, des mobilisations citoyennes et des interventions gouvernementales donnent lieu Ă une sĂ©rie de projets de dĂ©contamination et de rĂ©habilitation des riviĂšres urbaines. Prenant place dans un contexte de montĂ©e des prĂ©occupations environnementales, ces projets semblent signaler une reconquĂȘte des fronts dâeau par une population urbaine qui en aurait Ă©tĂ© privĂ©e par le passĂ©. Dans cet article, nous examinons les relations que les populations urbaines entretiennent envers leurs environnements fluviaux dans le temps long pour deux tributaires situĂ©s de part et dâautre du fleuve Saint-Laurent et qui traversent deux villes de taille moyenne du QuĂ©bec : Shawinigan, pour la riviĂšre Saint-Maurice, sur la rive nord, et Drummondville, pour la riviĂšre Saint-François, sur la rive sud. Par cette dĂ©marche, nous souhaitons montrer la façon dont les types de relations que les populations entretiennent avec les riviĂšres, plutĂŽt que de se succĂ©der dans le temps, se juxtaposent. De mĂȘme, nous souhaitons dĂ©gager les facteurs qui modulent lâintensitĂ© des mobilisations entourant le processus continuel dâappropriation des berges et des cours dâeau.Since the 1970s, citizensâ mobilizations and government interventions have led to a series of decontamination and rehabilitation projects of urban rivers. Taking place in a context of growing environmental concerns, these projects are indicative of a trend towards the appropriation of water fronts by urban populations. In this article, we examine the relationships which the urban populations of two medium-sized cities of Quebec have maintained to their river environments over a longer period of time. The selected populations are those from Shawinigan, a city situated along the Saint-Maurice River, which feeds into the north shore of the Saint-Lawrence River; and Drummondville, located at the St. Francis River, which feeds into the south shore of the Saint-Lawrence River. Through this approach, we seek to show how the types of relationships which people have with rivers are juxtaposed rather than simply succeeding in time. Similarly, we identify factors that shape the intensity of the mobilizations surrounding the continual process of appropriation of the banks and streams