Promises that matter: Reconfiguring ecology in the ecotrons

Ecotrons are large instruments designed to produce experimentally valid knowledge through the controlled manipulation of enclosed, simplifi ed ecosystems. Situating the ecotrons within a select genealogy of artifi cial biospheres, and drawing on interviews with key researchers engaged in the conception and recent construction of two ecotrons in France, we propose to think through ecotrons as promissory and anticipatory infrastructures that materialize a profound reconfi guration of ecologists' roles within wider civilizational narratives. Ecotrons encapsulate ecologists' ambitions to practice a 'hard' science, recognized by international environmental and science policy forums. They were integral to rise of the sub-discipline of functional ecology, which in turn underpins the policy discourse of 'ecosystem services'. Combining patterns of controlled experimentation with live simulations of future environmental conditions anticipated in climate change scenarios, the ecotron materialises a reorientation of the vocation of ecology: To secure the resilience of those 'ecosystem services' deemed critical to social life. Originally tasked with assessing the eff ects of biodiversity loss on the productivity and stability of the biosphere, ecotron research is increasingly focused on anthropogenic microbial ecosystems, and takes place within a terminology resolutely optimistic about the possibilities of microecological engineering, to the exclusion of earlier concerns with mass extinction

Organiser la proximité entre usagers de l'eau : le cas du Bassin de la Charente

Dans les années 80 en Charente , le partage de l'eau est devenu particulièrement conflictuel du fait du développement simultané de l'irrigation et de nouveaux usages de l'eau, sportifs, touristiques et résidentiels, relayant les revendications environnementalistes ainsi que celles des acteurs de l'eau potable et de la pêche. La proximité géographique autour du bien commun que constitue l'eau au sein d'un même bassin versant est alors créatrice de deux types d'effets négatifs, liés aux limites quantitatives de la ressource prélevée - qui sont reflétées par la sévérité des étiages -, et à la pollution agricole des cours d'eau. Au milieu des années 90 est expérimenté un dispositif de gestion concertée, la Gestion Volumétrique, associant, par sous bassin, l'ensemble des acteurs de l'eau autour de systèmes de restrictions des volumes d'irrigation en fonction de l'observation de l'état du milieu . Se met ainsi en place une série de mesures localisées, organisant l'équilibre entre demande en eau et ressources par sous bassin. Dans quelle mesure ce dispositif de coordination des acteurs permet-il une réappropriation des interdépendances de proximité subies dans une nouvelle forme de proximité organisée ? Nous avons tenté de répondre à cette question en nous fondant sur une approche sociologique reposant sur la restitution et la confrontation des discours issus d'une quarantaine d'entretiens effectués avec les divers acteurs de l'eau. Cette enquête permet de développer deux points. La distinction entre logique d'appartenance et logique de similitude constitue d'abord une grille de lecture éclairant la nature et les limites de la proximité organisée instaurée par la GV. Si celle-ci instaure de nouveaux lieux de concertation, de nouvelles règles pratiques et de nouvelles connaissances partagées - diffusion de données officielles sur l'état des cours d'eau et sur les prélèvements agricoles -, nous montrerons qu'elle échoue en revanche à rapprocher les acteurs autour d'une même représentation d'un juste partage de l'eau, réactualisant plutôt des oppositions de fond quant au développement souhaitable de l'agriculture irriguée . Par ailleurs, l'ajustement du dispositif aux spécificités locales (hydrologie, superficies irriguées, exigences du milieu) par des règles différenciées d'accès à l'eau (quantité, prix), crée de nouvelles tensions liées à des sentiments d'iniquité entre irrigants de sous bassins voisins. Ce cas d'étude suggère alors combien le rapprochement des usagers « concurrents » de l'eau selon un principe de coopération territoriale est conditionné par l'intégration et la transformation des proximités sectorielles préexistantes. L'organisation de la proximité doit ainsi être évaluée en référence à une reconfiguration générale des positionnements relatifs des groupes concernés, qu'une étude sociologique est à même de mettre en évidence. On montrera ici comment se redéfinissent les solidarités sectorielles et territoriales en pointant d'une part la permanence d'une proximité entre élus locaux, administrations et irrigants autour d'un discours sur la rentabilité de l'irrigation, qui circule au sein même des instances de concertation de la GV , et d'autre part la cristallisation d'un discours opposé refusant toute création de nouvelle ressource d'irrigation (réserves), porté par des associations et des agriculteurs minoritaires restés extérieurs à la GV.GESTION DE L'EAU;EVALUATION;SOCIOLOGIE;IRRIGATION;CULTURE IRRIGUEE;PROXIMITE SECTORIELLE;PROXIMITE ORGANISEE;CONTROVERSE;BASSIN DE LA CHARENTE

MELiSSA the minimal biosphere: Human life, waste and refuge in deep space

© 2017 Elsevier Ltd MELiSSA (Micro-Ecological Life Support System Alternative) is a long-term technology program of the European Space Agency. Its aim is to construct autonomous habitats in deep space, supplying astronauts with fresh air, water and food through continuous microbial recycling of human wastes. This article considers how anticipated futures of space travel and environmental survival are materialized in the project to engineer the minimal biosphere capable of reliably sustaining human life: a human/microbe association with the fewest possible species. We locate MELiSSA within a history of bio-infrastructures associated with colonisation projects: refugia in which organisms dislocated from their originary habitats are preserved. Analysis of MELiSSA's sewage-composting technology suggests that the disordering complexity of human waste presents a formidable “bottle-neck” for the construction of the minimal biosphere, in turn suggesting our dependence on microbial communities (soil, the human gut) of potentially irreducible biocomplexity. MELiSSA researchers think of themselves as pragmatic enablers of space exploration, yet a wider family of space colonisation projects are now imagined in terms of the prospect that the Earth might cease to function as the minimal biosphere capable of supporting civilisation. MELiSSA's politics of anticipation are paradoxical, promising technologies with which to escape from the Earth and through which it may be sustained

Assessing Nature? The Genesis of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)

International audienceBased on an anlysis of the creation of an IPBES, our contribution addresses the progressive stabilization of an institutional design for assessing Nature. As regards the implementation of new forms of environmental governance, social science literature has zidely promoted norms of transparency, openness and participation. But so far, few researchers have focused on the way this disclosure model now concretely weighs down on real institutions and institutionalization processes. Little attention has been paid to the way this requirement can combine with other requirements or older models of action. In the case of IPBES, our goal is to question how the requirements of participation and transparency are put into practice. We will highlight the role of UNEP (United Nations Environment Program) in the institutionalization process of IPBES and see how the disclosure model is combined with other requirements which simultaneously involve the re-creation of "enclosure" (i.e. the need for academic sound science, or the usual way in which things are done at UNEP, i.e. bureaucratic practices). OUr work is based on an empirical study including documentation analysis and interviews

Producing 'Human Elements Based Medical Technologies' in Biotech Companies: Some Ethical and Organisational Ingredients for Innovative Cooking

This article is based on the findings of an EU-funded qualitative research project, entitled 'From GMP to GBP: Fostering good bioethics practices [GBP] among the European biotechnology industry', which seeks to improve the understanding of bioethical issues through the observation of the daily practices in European biotechnology companies and proposes a methodology approaching ethical issues. The comparative study was carried out in biotech companies in France, Italy, Sweden, Hungary and Belgium which develop a wide range of new technologies, all of them involving human materials or where human subjects participate (in clinical trials). Based on our findings in these local settings, we suggest that the notion of bioethics and the way its production is theorised need to be re-conceptualised. We argue that material practices and moral statements are intermingled in inextricable ways that render the formation of bioethical concerns fully dependent on the organisational landscape in which it is embedded. More precisely, the here presented co-production model of moral statements and organisational practices presents a set of common factors that influence how bioethical discourses are shaped, despite the heterogeneity of their epistemic cultures. For example, the procedural design of cell-based-products, the modes of collecting and storing biological specimen, the relationship between patients and companies and technological transfers to emerging countries are defining components that contribute to the shaping process of bioethical concerns. Thus, the path dependency of bioethical concerns relies on an already existing, specific infrastructure and existing relationships within and outside a company rather than on external judgement subsequently applied to its objects, or a collection of processes of reasoning coming from external institutions

Emergence d’une spécialité scientifique dans l’espace - La réparation de l’ADN

International audienceIn the study of science, the specialty is seen as the ideal level of analysis to understand the genesis and development of scientific communities. This article uses bibliometric data to analyze the emergence of DNA repair by testing a hybrid method to identify the specialty’s appearance in geographical space by focusing on the geographical trajectories of the pioneers in this field. We try to identify the professional mobility of researchers using these bibliometric data, and if possible to highlight the structural networks of places during the emergence stage of the specialty. These networks determine places as much as they are built by individual trajectories. In this way, we try to make a place for the geography of science in the field of social studies of science.Dans l’étude des sciences, la spécialité est perçue comme le niveau d’analyse idéal pour comprendre la genèse et le développement des collectifs scientifiques. Cet article utilise des données bibliométriques pour analyser l’émergence de la Réparation de l’ADN en expérimentant une méthode mixte pour repérer son apparition dans l’espace géographique. En nous concentrant sur les trajectoires géographiques de pionniers dans cedomaine, nous tâchons de repérer leur mobilité professionnelle à l’aide de données bibliométriques dans la perspective de mettre en évidence les réseaux de lieux structurants dans la phase d’émergence de la spécialité. Ces réseaux de lieux déterminent autant qu’ils sont construits par les trajectoires individuelles. Nous essayons ainsi de faire une place à la géographie des sciences dans le domaine des études sociales des sciences

le carbone du sol et les promesses des technologies d'émission négative.

International audienceThe Paris Agreement reached at the COP 21 in 2015 signals the new centrality of carbon sinks, such as soils, as key means of offsetting anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and enabling a 'net' global climate balancing. My communication addresses the rising focus of climate science and policy on soil, including the interpellation and promotion of soil as enhanced carbon sink. Starting from the calculation that increasing the amount of carbon contained in soil by 0.4% per year would allow for offsetting annual anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions at the planetary scale, the "4 per 1000: Soils for Food Security and Climate" action was launched by the French government and currently has more than 200 signatories internationally. By accounting for the genesis and on-going developments of the 4 per 1000 Initiative, my communication shall contribute to a critical understanding of the requalification of soil in terms of climatic 'services' provision and bio-geo-engineering potential. Drawing on a grounded investigation including interviews with soil and climate scientists and policy-makers, I shall suggest that current soil carbon sequestration projects rely on a rather restrictive vision of soil as a global stock of carbon that we could monitor, measure, model, and enhance, which tends to ignore the actual diversity of soils, the complexity of their agency and temporality (i.e. soil releasing as well as sequestering carbon) and major issues of soil conservation. It will unpack the risks associated to the development of a new promissory climatic regime relying on soil-based negative emission technologies

Changements environnementaux - futurs de la nature

This book addresses environmental changes and how they reconfigure society’s relationship to the future. It argues that Man does not build “his” future alone: instead, environmental changes are also proof of the future-making capacity of non-human beings. The author elaborates on the notion of the futures of Nature by drawing on theoretical contributions by recent ground-breaking literature in the field of environmental humanities. The book also builds on a sociological investigation into the practices implemented by environmental scientists, experts and managers confronted with environmental changes. Thinking of nature in terms of its futures requires us to overcome the rooted philosophical tradition that associates nature with permanence and society with creative change. This is a daunting task which can only be successful if we look beyond the long-lasting influence of the human-centered categories of innovation, development and civilization that social sciences have themselves contributed to coining. We need to consider the active capacities of change and transformation of living beings and matter itself. This book is of academic interest, but is also for managers in different fields and areas affected by environmental changes

La séquestration du carbone dans le sol: une analyse sociale des politiques du sol et du climat

International audienceThe Paris Agreement reached at the COP 21 in 2015 signals the new centrality of carbon sinks, such as soils, as key means of offsetting anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and enabling a 'net' global climate balancing. My communication addresses the rising focus of climate science and policy on soil, including the interpellation and promotion of soil as enhanced carbon sink. Starting from the calculation that increasing the amount of carbon contained in soil by 0.4% per year would allow for offsetting annual anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions at the planetary scale, the "4 per 1000: Soils for Food Security and Climate" action was launched by the French government and currently has more than 200 signatories internationally. By accounting for the genesis and on-going developments of the 4 per 1000 Initiative, my communication shall contribute to a critical understanding of the requalification of soil in terms of climatic 'services' provision and bio-geo-engineering potential. Drawing on a grounded investigation including interviews with soil and climate scientists and policy-makers, I shall suggest that current soil carbon sequestration projects rely on a rather restrictive vision of soil as a global stock of carbon that we could monitor, measure, model, and enhance, which tends to ignore the actual diversity of soils, the complexity of their agency and temporality (i.e. soil releasing as well as sequestering carbon) and major issues of soil conservation. It will unpack the risks associated to the development of a new promissory climatic regime relying on soil-based negative emission technologies

« L'eau en bouteille. Marchés, matérialité et biopolitiques ». Traduction de l'anglais: introduction et chapitre 1 de Hawkins, G., Plastic Water, 2014, MIT Press

AutresPlastic Water s'attelle à comprendre l'émergence et le succès d'un marché de l'eau conditionnée en bouteilles plastique, en considérant la bouteille d'eau comme un objet ouvert, non achevé, et toujours intriqué dans une situation. L'ouvrage s'intéresse à dévoiler le rôle de la matérialité - les propriétés spécifiques de la bouteille plastique- dans la constitution des marchés à partir d'un travail de terrain réalisé dans trois mégapoles asiatiques ; à décrire comment la bouteille plastique s'est immiscé dans les pratiques quotidiennes du boire et les a reconfigurées ; enfin à documenter la mise en politique des marchés de l'eau en bouteille plastique via les diverses campagnes de contestation environnementale dont elle a fait l'objet, dénonçant l'accumulation de déchets plastiques. Céline Granjou propose ici la traduction de l'introduction de l'ouvrage, adossée à la traduction du premier chapitre ainsi qu'au compte-rendu détaillé de l'ensemble du livre par Baptiste Monsaingeon dans ce même numéro. Le propos est à la croisée de la sociologie économique et de la sociologie de la matérialité. Il constitue une introduction brillante et limpide au rôle de la matérialité et des objets techniques dans la constitution des pratiques et des collectifs socio-économiques ainsi que dans celle des formes de contestation politique et environnementale. L'ouvrage décortique également le corpus de savoirs (médecine du sport, savoirs de l'hydratation) qui a largement contribué à l'omniprésence des bouteilles d'eau en plastique de par le monde