RECITS FICTIONNELS DE VOYAGE : EXPLORER DES MONDES INCONNUS PAR LA PENSEE SCIENTIFIQUE

International audienceLa thématique du récit est un des thèmes fédérateurs du laboratoire S2HEP (EA 4148) de l’université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 et de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon. De nombreux chercheurs du laboratoire, provenant de la didactique de la physique ou de la biologie notamment, de l’histoire ou de la philosophie des sciences, explorent depuis maintenant quelques années, les récits de fiction réalistes (albums de jeunesses ou romans) comme mode d’accès aux savoirs.Cette approche nous invite à centrer nos recherches sur les fonctions du récit et en particulier la fonction de représentation qui va nous intéresser plus particulièrement dans cet article. Pour Ricœur (1975) la fonction du récit est précisément de référer métaphoriquement au monde. Il revient à la fiction, selon Bruner, « de nous entraîner dans le domaine « de ce qui pourrait être, de ce qui aurait pu être, de ce qui sera peut-être un jour » (Bruner, 2002, p. 16). En élargissant le champ des possibles, les représentations fictionnelles proposées par le récit augmentent – selon les mots de Jean-Marie Schaeffer (2006) – « la flexibilité de notre capacité imaginative ». Le récit permet ainsi d’imaginer des mondes invisibles, des effets non encore observé de tel ou tel phénomène biologique ou physique. On admet aujourd’hui qu’un grand nombre d’objets construits par les scientifiques (les quarks, les atomes, le gène) sont en fait des entités purement théoriques qui n’ont pas plus d’existence dans la réalité spatio-temporelle de notre monde que les personnages les plus célèbres de la fiction. Les récits fictionnels de voyage – qu’ils s’agissent de voyages physiques, réalisés par l’intermédiaire d’un instrument ou par la pensée – nous plongent en fait dans l’imaginaire de mondes contrefacteurs en ceci qu’ils obéissent à des lois ou des règles contraires au monde empirique. Dans la conception de la fiction chez Lewis (1978, 2007), ces mondes contrefacteurs sont des mondes possibles construits à partir d’une variation du monde actuel sur un point donné. Les conséquences épistémologiques sont doubles : d’une part la construction de l’intelligibilité des nouveaux phénomènes et d’autre part l’extension corrélative de la connaissance de notre monde (nouvelles espèces en biologie, nouveaux objets en physique, nouvelles modalités d’expérimentations). De ce point de vue, « les autre mondes fournissent une structure de référence grâce à laquelle il nous est permis de caractériser notre monde. » (Lewis, 2007, p. 46). Ces mondes obligent leurs auteurs mais aussi les personnages, et le lecteur, à changer de cadre de référence et d’instrumentation pour appréhender les nouveaux phénomènes en jeu. Un objectif de notre étude est d’analyser ces récits en vue de les convoquer dans un contexte d’enseignement et/ou de médiation

Why, how, and how far should microbiological contamination in a coastal zone be mitigated? An application of the systems approach to the Thau lagoon (France)

Full text : http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00136/24775/22959.pdf (Version "auteur", 0.77 Mo)International audienceThis paper describes the building of an integrated simulation tool based on a systems approach, and its contribution to local political discussion of the mitigation of microbiological contamination of the water in a coastal area. Local management schemes view water quality as a high-priority environmental objective. In practice, how far this objective is achieved depends on trade-offs between the costs of improved water treatment facilities and the acceptable impacts of water contamination. An in-the-field experiment in collaboration with local managers was carried out in the Thau lagoon on the French Mediterranean coast during the SPICOSA (Science and Policy Integration for Coastal System Assessment) project, from 2007 through 2011. It consisted of building a modeling platform and an integrated assessment framework for simulating exploratory scenarios. The modeling platform combines a dynamic contamination model, which represents the sources of microbiological contamination, wastewater treatment facilities, and physical mechanisms of lagoon contamination, with a prospective economic model, which estimates the patterns of development of economic activities in the area through a holistic approach. Exploratory scenarios are used to assess the risk of water contamination and the efficiency of management measures, under various assumptions about the evolution of the system. The contamination simulations suggest that the work currently planned by local authorities will be inadequate for preventing increased water pollution, and that additional but fairly inexpensive management measures for maintaining the current level of water quality should be considered. The integrated assessment framework estimates the ecological and socio-economic impacts of the various pollution mitigation policies in the broader context of possible local development patterns. The results illustrate how the systems approach may aid in the design of an applicable water policy based on operational objectives and feasible technical options. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

From scandal to monastic penance: a reconciliatory manuscript from the early twelfth-century abbey of St. Laurent in Liège

An important element of monastic penance and conflict resolution was its repetitive, almost cyclical nature. The manuscripts that were used during these performances often proceed implicitly, which makes them difficult to contextualize and understand. This article considers a possible example of such "hidden" reconciliatory discourse in a manuscript that was produced for the congregation of St. Laurent in Liege around the turn of the eleventh century: Brussels, Royal Library 9361-9367. It examines the sin of pride in monastic dignitaries, discusses the best way to atone for it, and provides tools for the penitent to start living a more virtuous life in the future. The surviving evidence suggests that this manuscript was produced in reaction to the deeds of abbot Berenger, whose actions in 1095 were considered scandalous by contemporaries because he had led his monks into confusion and sin. The article shows how the combination of texts in this manuscript takes on a different meaning because of these politically charged circumstances, and argues that the St. Laurent manuscript was a discreet but methodical way to end the resulting estrangement between Berenger and his monks. In this interpretation, Brussels RL 9361-9367 is a rare and highly relevant testimony to the ways in which monks in the early twelfth century dealt with psychological and social tensions in the wake of an intra-group conflict

Assessing, quantifying and valuing the ecosystem services of coastal lagoons

The natural conservation of coastal lagoons is important not only for their ecological importance, but also because of the valuable ecosystem services they provide for human welfare and wellbeing. Coastal lagoons are shallow semi-enclosed systems that support important habitats such as wetlands, mangroves, salt-marshes and seagrass meadows, as well as a rich biodiversity. Coastal lagoons are also complex social-ecological systems with ecosystem services that provide livelihoods, wellbeing and welfare to humans. This study assessed, quantified and valued the ecosystem services of 32 coastal lagoons. The main findings of the study are: (i) the definitions of ecosystem services are still not generally accepted; (ii) the quantification of ecosystem services is made in many different ways, using different units; (iii) the evaluation in monetary terms of some ecosystem service is problematic, often relying on non-monetary evaluation methods; (iv) when ecosystem services are valued in monetary terms, this may represent very different human benefits; and, (v) different aspects of climate change, including increasing temperature, sea-level rise and changes in rainfall patterns threaten the valuable ecosystem services of coastal lagoons.DEVOTES project, from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration [308392]; networks and communities of Eurolag; Future Earth Coasts; SCOR; Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT) Investigador Programme [IF/00331/2013]; Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia [UID/MAR/04292/2013]; CESAM by FCT/MEC national funds (PIDDAC) [UID/AMB/50017/2013 - POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007638]; FEDER; European Commission, under the 7th Framework Programme through the collaborative research project LAGOONS [283157]; FCT [SFRH/BPD/107823/2015, SFRH/BPD/91494/2012