Les justifications mouvantes de la patrimonialisation des espèces "remarquables". L'exemple du bouquetin des Alpes

International audienceIncreasingly, all living creatures are being turned into natural heritage. Yet, animal species that were initially considered "remarkable" continue to be more distinguished than others. This article proposes a longue durée study of the heritagization of a species that was protected very early on, the alpine mountain goat (or ibex). It focuses on the role of actors defined as "heritagization entrepreneurs". Drawing on pragmatic sociology and building on empirical fieldwork, it underlines the capacity of these entrepreneurs to continually reformulate and reinvent reasons for distinguishing their favorite animal. It thus sheds new light on the heritagization process, which appears to arise in particular situations rather than being founded on generic criteria such as those attached to the notion of "animal charisma". Beyond the relatively flexible justifications given to justify perserving a single species at a particular moment, the possibility of establishing a relationship with and elaborating a narrative around a given animal appears to be a key condition for its heritagization.Malgré la tendance à constituer l'ensemble du vivant en patrimoine naturel, les espèces animales initialement désignées comme remarquables continuent aujourd'hui d'être plus distinguées que les autres. L'article retrace, sur la longue durée, les justifications apportées à la patrimonialisation d'une espèce très tôt protégée, le bouquetin des Alpes. Il met en avant le rôle dans ce processus d'acteurs qualifiés d'" entrepreneurs de patrimonialisation ". En s'inspirant de la sociologie pragmatique et en s'appuyant sur une enquête de terrain, il souligne la capacité de ces derniers à sans arrêt reformuler et réinventer les raisons de distinguer leur animal de prédilection. Il apporte ainsi un nouvel éclairage sur le processus de patrimonialisation, qui apparaît davantage justifié en situation que fondé sur des critères génériques tels que ceux attachés au " charisme animal ". Au-delà des justifications relativement plastiques avancées à un moment donné, la possibilité d'établir une relation et de vivre une histoire avec une espèce animale apparaît comme une condition forte de sa patrimonialisatio

Les Alpes, de la société de la vache au parc animalier

Le texte montre que sont aujourd'hui réunis, dans les Alpes, les éléments d'un zoo idéal: la grande faune sauvage y est abondante et diversifiée, le public avide de voir des animaux sauvages en liberté est nombreux et les techniques relevant de "l'éco-zoo-technie" de plus en plus performantes. Face à ces évolutions, les réactions des sociétés alpines s'avèrent contrastées. Bien des chasseurs se réjouissent de l'augmentation du gibier et les animaux sauvages sont devenus une nouvelle ressource touristique à exploiter. Mais les éleveurs et les agriculteurs voient dans la progression de la faune sauvage une cause de leur propre déclin et la manifestation d'un projet de société qui s'oppose au leur

Les éleveurs et leurs voisins. Etude du renouvellement des rhétoriques professionnelles d’une profession contestée

[paper in French] Today’s farmers are facing growing criticism about their activities, around questions of pollution, sanitary affairs, climatic change or animal welfare, non-professional actors promoting their own definitions of what farming activities should be – or should not be. This particular situation provides a good opportunity to explore the new professional discourses developed by a contested profession, fostered to re-elaborate the sense of its activities. Based on a survey in a rural mountain community, we present the criticisms addressed to cattle farmers by non-farmers in the village, which stress problems about land ownership, manure management, and pasture maintenance. We highlight two types of professional discourse developed by cattle farmers in response to the criticisms: The first one combines a victimisation figure with the threat of giving up the job; the second one claims responsibility and anticipation of the non-farmers’ demands, as far as technical constraints make this anticipation possible.profession, cattle-breeder, professional discourses, neighbourhood

Le renouveau des inventaires naturalistes au début du XXIe siècle

L’article vise à éclairer le renouveau contemporain des inventaires naturalistes, en s’appuyant sur une analyse documentaire et sur deux enquêtes, l’une sur les recherches menées dans le parc national de la Vanoise dans les années 1960, l’autre sur un inventaire en cours (All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory Mercantour-Alpi marittime). Après les avoir longtemps laissés en dehors de leurs stratégies de reconquête d’une respectabilité scientifique, les systématiciens présentent aujourd’hui les inventaires comme un des fers de lance de leur discipline. Une première explication de cette évolution, souvent mise en avant, réside dans la prise de conscience du très grand nombre d’espèces encore à découvrir. Le scénario d’une 6e extinction des espèces constitue une « fiction essentielle », dont la diffusion est au moins aussi importante pour expliquer ce mouvement de relance et sa publicisation.This article aims to highlight the current rebirth of nature inventories. It draws on a document analysis and on two surveys, one on the researches carried out in the Vanoise national park in the 1960s, the other on an on-going inventory (All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory Mercantour-Alpi marittime). Putting inventories on the front stage is a recent trend for systematists, who have long based their quest for respectability on other aspects of their work. The new start of inventories is commonly explained by the rising awareness of the very high number of species that remain to be discovered. The scenario of the 6th extinction of species constitutes an “essential fiction” that seems to be at least as important in this relaunch

La mise en circulation des objets scientifiques

Cet article réfléchit à l’organisation et aux effets de la mise en circulation des objets scientifiques entre des mondes sociaux différents à partir de l’exemple des escargots patrimoniaux du Mercantour. Il s’appuie sur une enquête de terrain, qui a visé à retracer les itinéraires des coquilles d’escargots, du Mercantour au Muséum national d’histoire naturelle et à saisir les transformations qui les ont accompagnés. Je commence par introduire les deux notions sociologiques principalement utilisées : celle d’objet-frontière et celle de vie sociale des choses, que j’emprunte respectivement aux travaux classiques de Star et Griesemer (1989) et d’Appadurai (1986). Je présente ensuite la genèse et le déroulement de l’inventaire des escargots patrimoniaux du Mercantour, dans lequel des malacologues du Muséum et des agents du parc national du Mercantour ont étroitement collaboré. Je m’intéresse alors à l’organisation pratique de la mise en circulation des coquilles et des fiches de relevé qui les accompagnent. La transformation des coquilles en objets de science a été rendue possible par leur mobilisation et par l’organisation matérielle, institutionnelle et marchande qui sous-tend cette mobilisation. Des règles plus ou moins clairement définies ont régi la circulation des coquilles et des fiches de relevé, qui a aussi été marquée par quelques accidents de parcours : les coquilles et les fiches n’ont pas toujours suivi la trajectoire idéale. La dernière partie porte sur les changements de statut opérés par la mobilisation des objets scientifiques. Ces changements de statut concernent à la fois les objets scientifiques et ceux qui les mettent en mouvement. Ils constituent une motivation forte de l’implication dans l’entreprise scientifique et l’invisibilisation des déplacements effectués peut alors constituer une importante source de friction entre les contributeurs à cette entreprise. L’article montre en définitive que la mise en circulation d’objets-frontières ne permet pas seulement la coopération entre des mondes sociaux différents mais contribue également à la reconfiguration de ces mondes et de leurs interrelations.This article draws on the case of the Mercantour’s rare snails to reflect on the modalities and effects of the circulation of scientific objects between different social worlds. It is based on a field survey that aimed to retrace the routes of the snail shells, from the Mercantour to the National Museum of Natural History, and to grasp the transformations that took place along these routes. I begin by presenting the two main sociological notions I use: that of “boundary object” (Star and Griesemer 1989) and that of “social life of things” (Appadurai 1986). I then present the genesis and development of the inventory of rare snails in the Mercantour, in which malacologists from the Museum and staff from the Mercantour national park cooperated very closely with one another. Next, I turn to the practical organization of the circulation of the shells and forms that accompany them. This circulation and the material, institutional and market organization that underpinned it allowed the transformation of the shells into scientific objects. While more or less clearly defined rules governed the circulation of shells and forms, some accidents occurred along the way: the shells and forms did not always follow the ideal trajectory. The last part of the article deals with the changes in status performed by the circulation of scientific objects. These changes concern both the scientific objects and those who circulate them. They are a strong motivation to become involved in the scientific undertaking and rendering movements invisible can thus generate an important amount of friction between the participants. Overall, the article shows that the circulation of scientific objects does not only allow the cooperation between different social worlds but also contributes to the reconfiguration of these worlds and their interactions

Natalizumab treatment shows low cumulative probabilities of confirmed disability worsening to EDSS milestones in the long-term setting.

Abstract Background Though the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) is commonly used to assess disability level in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), the criteria defining disability progression are used for patients with a wide range of baseline levels of disability in relatively short-term trials. As a result, not all EDSS changes carry the same weight in terms of future disability, and treatment benefits such as decreased risk of reaching particular disability milestones may not be reliably captured. The objectives of this analysis are to assess the probability of confirmed disability worsening to specific EDSS milestones (i.e., EDSS scores ≥3.0, ≥4.0, or ≥6.0) at 288 weeks in the Tysabri Observational Program (TOP) and to examine the impact of relapses occurring during natalizumab therapy in TOP patients who had received natalizumab for ≥24 months. Methods TOP is an ongoing, open-label, observational, prospective study of patients with RRMS in clinical practice. Enrolled patients were naive to natalizumab at treatment initiation or had received ≤3 doses at the time of enrollment. Intravenous natalizumab (300 mg) infusions were given every 4 weeks, and the EDSS was assessed at baseline and every 24 weeks during treatment. Results Of the 4161 patients enrolled in TOP with follow-up of at least 24 months, 3253 patients with available baseline EDSS scores had continued natalizumab treatment and 908 had discontinued (5.4% due to a reported lack of efficacy and 16.4% for other reasons) at the 24-month time point. Those who discontinued due to lack of efficacy had higher baseline EDSS scores (median 4.5 vs. 3.5), higher on-treatment relapse rates (0.82 vs. 0.23), and higher cumulative probabilities of EDSS worsening (16% vs. 9%) at 24 months than those completing therapy. Among 24-month completers, after approximately 5.5 years of natalizumab treatment, the cumulative probabilities of confirmed EDSS worsening by 1.0 and 2.0 points were 18.5% and 7.9%, respectively (24-week confirmation), and 13.5% and 5.3%, respectively (48-week confirmation). The risks of 24- and 48-week confirmed EDSS worsening were significantly higher in patients with on-treatment relapses than in those without relapses. An analysis of time to specific EDSS milestones showed that the probabilities of 48-week confirmed transition from EDSS scores of 0.0–2.0 to ≥3.0, 2.0–3.0 to ≥4.0, and 4.0–5.0 to ≥6.0 at week 288 in TOP were 11.1%, 11.8%, and 9.5%, respectively, with lower probabilities observed among patients without on-treatment relapses (8.1%, 8.4%, and 5.7%, respectively). Conclusions In TOP patients with a median (range) baseline EDSS score of 3.5 (0.0–9.5) who completed 24 months of natalizumab treatment, the rate of 48-week confirmed disability worsening events was below 15%; after approximately 5.5 years of natalizumab treatment, 86.5% and 94.7% of patients did not have EDSS score increases of ≥1.0 or ≥2.0 points, respectively. The presence of relapses was associated with higher rates of overall disability worsening. These results were confirmed by assessing transition to EDSS milestones. Lower rates of overall 48-week confirmed EDSS worsening and of transitioning from EDSS score 4.0–5.0 to ≥6.0 in the absence of relapses suggest that relapses remain a significant driver of disability worsening and that on-treatment relapses in natalizumab-treated patients are of prognostic importance

The construction of biodiversity as a political and scientific problem

How has biodiversity defined itself as a public problem, by what processes has the notion become an important issue in public polices? This text presents a chronology of the phenomenon

La construction de la biodiversité comme problème politique et scientifique, premiers résultats d’une enquête en cours

Comment la biodiversité s'est définie en tant que problème public, par quels processus de construction cette notion a pu devenir un enjeu suscitant l'intérêt des politiques publiques ? Ce texte présente quelques pistes de réflexions chronologiques

Préface

Mauz Isabelle. Préface. In: Revue de géographie alpine, tome 94, n°4, 2006. La montagne comme ménagerie / Mountain areas as menageries sous la direction de Isabelle Mauz. p. 5