Search

Between 2014 and 2017, during three "Doctoriales" sessions, 84 young PhD candidates in humanities and social sciences were given the opportunity to present their work. Based on this experience, and a short survey done in 2017 by the authors, this paper aims to analyze the state of "young" research on water in human and social sciences. Even if most of the papers presented during the "Doctoriales" relate to geography and economy, overall 12 disciplinary fields were represented. A great variety of approaches and methods were also noted with, however, disciplinary specificities concerning a normative or constructivist approach, references mainly to Anglo-Saxon or French literature, and so on. General trends have also been identified, such as a widespread multidisciplinary approaches and, for most young researchers, the wish to remain in academia after their PhD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking Sartre's philosophy as a starting point, our paper is deliberately both theoretical and action oriented. It aims to promote a way to develop the adequate scientific practices which the sustainable development utopia requires. To this end, it is written as a manifesto designed to stimulate debates and controversies. Following a critical review of all that is being said and done in the name of sustainable development in the political sphere as well as in the relationships social sciences entertain with the political sphere, this paper is a call to consider rigorously the difficulties and even the impossibilities of moving "from the utopia to the concepts". Introducing and articulating the almost contradictory dimensions of sustainability in real urban territories demands that a relevant method be developed to investigate this complex object. We propose the concept of "socially sustainable milieu" to try and reach this objective which requires the interdisciplinary linking of physical and social sciences. GIS and modelling need to be associated with anthropological methods. Most of all, the paper underscores the need to set "inhabitants" at the heart of the scientific project, thus reversing the usual focus and starting with an investigation of the way each individual reconciles the "three pillars" of sustainable development and builds his/her relationship with sustainable urban milieus. This may help rise above the still top-down views of governance, thus enabling scientists to contribute to developing the political sustainable utopia in real sites and situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along with the emergence of the "sustainable city" concept, urban issues are assuming increasing importance in research and debates relating to the environment. In order to contribute to reflection on achievements and interdisciplinary research perspectives, this paper proposes a retrospective and prospective account of city and urban analyses conducted in the journal Natures Sciences Sociétés. Based on the corpus of writings published in the journal since its inception, the author develops a critical analysis around five themes: urban nuisances and the quality of the urban living environment; local pollution and heritage management of urban living environment; urban atmospheric pollution and human health; urban ecology and nature in the city; from urban ecology to the sustainable city. The paper then shows the contribution made by these articles and considerations in the development of an interdisciplinary perspective to investigate the relationship that people have with nature. This analysis highlights the heuristic potential offered by the broadening of problematics and the decompartmentalization of approaches as well as the conceptual, methodological, and epistemological difficulties and stumbling blocks of interdisciplinary approaches that link natural sciences and social sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Primequal research program, aimed at studying air quality at the local scale, was initiated in 1995 by the Ministry in charge of the Environment and by ADEME (French Environment and Energy Management Agency). Designed as a multidisciplinary program, it centered chiefly on the physico-chemical and sanitary aspects of air pollution. Human and social sciences, though regularly invited to participate in the program, have remained little involved. To overcome this problem, a special call for research wholly dedicated to the field was set up in 2004. Eight projects, whose results are briefly summarized and discussed in this paper, were funded. For the authors, one of the main findings of this research is the remaining gap, due to poor governance, between the institutional approach to air quality based on monitoring and administrative overseeing and the population's lack of grasp and involvement regarding an issue to which they are, however, highly sensitive and whose sanitary implications they are strongly aware of. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using professional knowledge in building scientific knowledge; a comparative analysis of several case studies. This paper results from cross-disciplinary reflection by social and biotechnical researchers engaged in surveys with experts from the agriculture and nature spheres: farmers: technical advisors, managers of nature conservation programmes and biologists. The purpose was to analyse the way professional knowledge is used by researchers to enrich their body of scientific knowledge. How professional knowledge is used depends in part on each scientific discipline, but far more on the final research aims. We first identified three ideotypes based on whether professional knowledge is used (1) in a comprehensive way to understand its origins, (2) to build new biological knowledge complementary to the one produced on an experimental basis, or (3) to build operational knowledge to help professionals manage their problems. A cross-analysis of the survey methods used then led to discussing the nature of the scientific knowledge developed from professional knowledge and the innovative potential of such surveys. Finally the heuristic potential of surveys is highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]