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The rise of the environmental issue in French research institutions since the 1990's coincided both with a strong development of interdisciplinarity, and with an ever growing recourse to history, first as narrative, second as method. This paper aims to analyse this process from the perspective of a situated trajectory, that of the author, a historian who was progressively integrated into the epistemic community formed around the study of the relationships between natures, sciences, and societies, and led to share the heuristic dimension of historical narrative as a means of elucidating 'what happens to time' in the Anthropocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2017 and 2019 there took place the first two editions of a Summer Seminar entitled "About the 2 °C" dedicated to the challenges of interdisciplinarity in research and training courses on climate change. In this paper, we focus on the motivations that led to launching this initiative, as well as to the positioning and progress of these first two editions, which highlighted the scientific and socio-political challenges raised by the implementation of interdisciplinarity in research, particularly regarding an object as protean as climate change. Besides, this paper provides a good opportunity to take stock of the possible evolutions of this Summer Seminar, given the societal and scientific challenges associated with the understanding and management of the impact of global changes on our environment and our societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper questions the notion of 'local' as applied to food provisioning and its social, spatial and political dimensions. The aim is to understand how the different actors involved in local and 'localized' food circuits think, use and apply this notion. By following the diverse representations of locality – from the actors' discourses to urban planning texts – and the practices that implement them, the authors (an anthropologist, a geographer and an urban planner) examine the variability of this notion in order to analyze the way it is appropriated and reconfigured according to the arena in which it is mobilized. This text also aims to reflect on the limits and contributions of a multidisciplinary approach to these issues. The challenge is to show that the summing of these three approaches brings out new elements that do not emerge from each individual analysis. The notion of 'local' is part of an administrative, spatial and ideological reality that is being constantly recomposed according to political, social and economic processes. Questioning this notion by involving three dimensions and three disciplines, enables our reflection to avoid the impasses of scientific literature in which the meaning of what is local seems to be self-evident while remaining fixed in specific disciplinary frameworks, and to show its shifting nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On February 6, 2020, a symposium entitled "Sea and the Anthropocene", organized by H. Artaud, F. Chlous and É. Mariat-Roy was held at the auditorium of the Grand Gallery of the French National Museum of Natural History in Paris. The purpose of this event was to reflect on an issue that has now become crucial, although so far little explored in an interdisciplinary perspective by recent studies on the sea, i.e., the notion of the Anthropocene. The aim of the symposium was therefore to open up a debate head-on by questioning the late and relatively marginal nature of its application to the sea, and specifying the ways in which these anthropocenic seas are linked to environmental history, anthropology, art history, plastic arts and political science. In this report, we present the scientific background that fostered this event, the contribution of each of the papers as well as the main avenues of reflection opened up by the debates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the feedback from the project leaders on the management of interdisciplinarity involving 14 scientific projects (3 networks and 11 research projects) that are part of a program on the integrated management of animal health, and from researchers participating in the overall management of the program. The difficulties encountered by the project leaders relate to a need for acculturation among disciplines, to the equilibrium and mutual respect between disciplines within the project, to the lack of time dedicated to the scientific animation of the project, and to the difficulty of publishing interdisciplinary work. The level of interdisciplinarity varies among projects, from juxtaposition of several disciplines to their actual integration. Recommendations proposed to future project leaders at the various steps of a projet involve the co-design step, in order to facilitate the decentering of disciplinary questioning, the implementation step requiring an agile management, and the report step, in order to analyse how interdisciplinarity has shifted disciplinary lines and modified initial questions. Strengthening of interdisciplinary programs should prioritize the training of researchers in interdisciplinarity, provide support for the conception of interdisciplinary projects, and analyse the degree to which integration of disciplines was achieved in the projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an impressive literature on 'interdisciplinarity'. Nevertheless, few papers provide a descriptive taxonomy of the different forms of scientific work at the intersection of different kinds of knowledge. Those who tackle this issue adopt either a normative and internalist viewpoint in relation to a given discipline or the sociology of identity perspective.Moreover, the concept of 'trading zones' is so commonly used in the social sciences and beyond that it seems to be able to cover most of 'interdisciplinary' exchanges, but proves in fact to be insufficient. On the basis of fieldwork on complexity sciences, this article proposes to provide a descriptive taxonomy of 'interdisciplinary' scientific work, identifying five types described from interviews and archival citations: the frontier workers (a category that corresponds to what Galison has described with the 'trading zones' notion), the ambassadors (who work in multidisciplinary teams and help people from different disciplines to understand each other), the polyglots (who can 'speak' several languages and who often end up leading multidisciplinary teams), the dual nationals (who can 'speak' two languages and can conduct 'interdisciplinary' research alone or with others) and the translators (who apply one universal tool to several disciplines). We offer a critique of the term 'interdisciplinarity' and propose an alternative term: epistemic inter-culturalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environmental problems and the climate issue point to the responsibility of human activities in the disturbances of the global ecosystem. It appears that Earth's changes can no longer be set apart from those of society, as expressed by the notion of Anthopocene. Researchers in the natural and social sciences are now induced to work together on issues that have become shared. In this context I was asked as a sociologist to join an interdisciplinary team of researchers in Earth sciences, chemistry and engineering, to work on a project aiming to produce non-carbon hydrogen from waste of the iron and steel industry. This paper is based on fieldwork conducted as part of this project. Its purpose is to question what it is that natural sciences, in this case geology, are studying if we consider that an autonomous nature, independent of humans and of society, does not exist. Observation of geologists at work, mainly on their research field in the Alps, and the interviews I had with them, has led me to point out the intimate relationship that links them to the environment they are studying. This environment has little to do with some abstract natural world or with the global environment such as that of climate change for example. This definition of what is at stake in Earth sciences will impact on the understanding of environmental problems and on the collaboration between the natural and the social sciences that it implies nowadays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Societies are facing social ecosystemic crises which affect the highly anthropized and globalized Planet and which constitute major issues and a huge challenge for the future. Addressing these issues requires facing the very tough complexities of extensively anthropized ecosystems whose understanding demands interaction between the full range of environmental sciences (ESs), i.e. earth, life, human and societal sciences. Interdisciplinarity is not an option, but a structural constraint. The author presents a comprehensive interdisciplinarity facility which he designed within the French CNRS and implements since 2007 to address with this situation: the Human-Environment Observatories (Observatoires hommes-milieux, OHMs). Thirteen of these have been created in France and in other countries in 2019. In 2012 they were the French Governement's PIA1 laureate with the Labex DRIIHM (InterDisciplinary Research Facility on Human-Environment Interactions) for an 8 years funding which has just been renewed for 5 years (2020-2024). The OHMs are dedicated to the study of heavily anthropized sites hit by a "disrupting event" which has upset the ecological, economic and social balances that have developed over decades in the local socio-ecological conditions (for instance, a coalfield mine and its shutdown). In this paper, the author states the qualities needed for this interdisciplinary work in order to deal with these social ecological issues, and specifies the definition of multi-, inter- and trans-disciplinarity. He remarks that, within the OHMs, an "enlightened disciplinarity" spontaneously develops between all ESs due to a heuristic open-minded attitude called "indisciplinarity". Three examples of this mode of functioning are presented. They highlight the flexibility and simplicity of the process and its efficacy in developing links among scientists and between these and society in a sustainable development outlook. The OHMs facility provides one of the possibilities to take up the challenge of confronting the hypercomplex ecosytemic crises that arise in highly anthropised socio-ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates, from a sociological perspective, the emergence of nutritional (epi)genomics, a field of research that has emerged from the Human Genome Project and whose aim is to renew the diagnosis, prevention and management of foodrelated chronic pathologies. By identifying more precisely the genetic and epigenetic risk factors at the individual level, this would indeed lead to the development of personalized nutrition. As such, it is often presented as a scientific revolution. The first part of the paper defines this research field by discussing its main scientific issues and presenting its medical applications that consist in biotechnology which has been available on the market over the past decade (nutrigenetic testing) as well as a public health program which is currently being drawn up (the "first 1000 days" initiative). Then it focuses on its social, ethical and political consequences as it could induce new forms of responsibility at the individual, intergenerational and political scales, and also heighten the medicalization of food and, consequently, its individualization. Finally the paper tries to understand to what extent the field of nutritional (epi)genomics may contribute to (re) consider the dialogue between social, biomedical and life sciences regarding the food and health relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In November 2016, the Second Austral Summer School "Vulnerability of coral reefs heritage" (EEA VulPaRe 2016) took place at Toliara (Madagascar). The school was funded and organised by IRD (French Research Institute for Development) and IHSM (Institute of Halieutics and Marine Science, University of Toliara), and proposed an interdisciplinary approach to the study of coral reefs. Environmental issues, different types of knowledge and valorisation of coral reefs were addressed by means of lectures, seminars, discussions and fieldwork. In this paper, the participants of EEA VulPaRe 2016 provide a critical feedback on this original interdisciplinary research training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The words "green ICTs" (information and communication technologies), "green IT" or "eco-ICTs" have spread in recent years either asserting the ecological potential of digital technologies or, on the contrary, underlining the progress needed in this field. Our paper raises the issue of ICT production and use, showing how they help to steer human societies towards more ecological ways, or on the other hand how they generate pollutions and "rebound effects", which might more than cancel expected benefits. What stakes are currently involved in these terms? By crossing the contributions of several disciplines, the paper highlights a trend shared by many stakeholders who believe that the problem can be solved through technical advances and thus can be dropped out of their agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper opens new avenues for reflection on interdisciplinarity via the combinatory perspective that four "young researchers" propose on research evaluation practices, including editorial practices, call for proposals, teaching, recruitment, etc. For instance, all interdisciplinary journals impose specific requirements on their incoming authors. With this paper we wish to take their standpoint in order to highlight, discuss and organize these requirements into a usable product - a compass - that could eventually guide processes of interdisciplinary work evaluation. Therefore, our analysis is driven by the question of how to qualify patterns of interdisciplinarity in order to improve the methodological transparency of evaluation practices. Further, taking the example of editorial practices we start by presenting a brief inventory of the way in which interdisciplinarity gets objectified through practices, from the identification of the authors' disciplinary background via their institutional affiliations to the acknowledgement of combinatory approaches via the use of bibliometric measures. We then insist on the scarcely fixable, ever-changing character of the construction of interdisciplinary objects. We take this feature as the stepping point to revisit evaluation categories in order to make them more suitable to the dynamic process of interdisciplinary construction. Our goal is not to provide an additional analysis of the interdisciplinary object itself; rather we aim to provide a tool to scrutinize the author's interdisciplinary intents in relation to his/her own creation of the research object and his/her own objectivation perspective. Therefore, we propose a compass consisting of 5 axes, each reflecting a specific aspect of interdisciplinary practices at the interface between natures/sciences/societies: temporal dynamics of interdisciplinarity, distance between disciplines, collective dimensions of research practice, style of engagement in public debate and extra-academic scope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explains the scientific reasoning that led us to institute the "night environment" as new interdisciplinary research topic from a social-ecological perspective. Sociocultural, ecological and health costs of artificial light at night (ALAN) have been gradually highlighted since the second half of the twentieth century in a range of scientific fields, from astronomy to medicine through ecology and energy. At the same time an environmentalist movement was emerging: the "dark-sky movement" which condemns "light pollution" and carries its demands within local, national or international arenas. In the 1990s, the requalification of urban lighting as light pollution gave rise to the ill-defined notion of night environment. This notion aims to understand the systems, both human and non-human, that are functionally related to the night and darkness. Building on medium and long-term observations of the processes of construction, legitimation and territorialization of the nocturnal environment, we demonstrate that this notion enables to establish a junction between the different strongly compartmentalized meanings and approaches of the roles, functions and effects of ALAN, and more specifically of urban lighting. We propose to approach its study based on the social-ecological systems framework. This requires creating strong interactions between the different approaches of ALAN: those of the social sciences and those of the experimental, life and health sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On October 27, 2016 a symposium entitled “Interdisciplinarity: Discourse and reality” was held at the Université libre de Bruxelles. It had been preceded by a survey of French-speaking researchers on their actual practice in this regard. The survey yielded 104 responses that have been thoroughly reviewed and the results discussed regarding the state of the art related to the surveys on interdisciplinarity. In addition, international speakers shared their experiences in different areas during the day. One of the lessons from these discussions is that there is currently a rich and diversified practice which contrasts somewhat with the picture of difficulty often associated with interdisciplinarity. Our paper presents these results and adds analyses and proposals stemming from the discussions. This symposium was organized within the framework of the “Séminaires Prigogine − Penser la science”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we address the issue of interdisciplinarity (ID) and transdisciplinarity (TD) as dealt with in three recent issues of English-language journals. The first is a rather managerial approach; the second questions philosophically the notions of frontiers and indirectly that of paradigm; the third attemps a scientometric measure of the stake and runs into a problem of object definition. We conclude with a few remarks on the contributions and limitations of each and all of the three approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collaboration, avoidance and conflict between disciplines around a shared field. This article addresses collaborations, conflicts and avoidances that develop between disciplines over a shared field of study. In this perspective and using the notion of border zone (Kohler, 2001 and 2011), I analyzed the Sénart forest on the outskirts of Paris, the study area of researchers working on Lyme disease and its primary vector, ticks of the Ixodes genus. For sciences such as ecology, geography or epidemiology that base their assumptions on field observation and the interpretation of indices, Sénart is an exceptional site. It combines all the risk factors currently identified as favoring the persistence and development of Lyme disease cases. However, these various factors and their combinations exceed the scope of a single scientific community or a single researcher. To investigate the risk factors. interdisciplinary work developed on the Sénart case through common research projects. However, instead of remaining mere collaborative work, the project turned out to be a source of conflicts, competition and critics within the research teams involved. These issues still need addressing. In this paper I discuss the kinds of relationships and the various learning processes enabled by this shared space. I show in particular that researchers view study representativeness differently depending on their field practice. To conclude I show that the relations between these various actors seem to be determined in fine by three types of nested conditions: institutional, cognitive, and ethical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates thirteen recent reviews of publications, including scientific and official reports published between 2003 and 2014 that deal with the positive health effects of exposure to a natural environment on the physical, psychological and social dimensions of human health and well-being. These contributions originate from several disciplines such as epidemiology, sociology and environmental psychology while interdisciplinary contributions are rare. This literature review shows moderate to strong empirical evidence for the positive influence of contact with green and blue spaces and mental and physical health and low evidence for influences on social cohesion. It also shows that health impacts may vary according to the population group considered (e.g. children, people with low socio-economic status). Comparison between the different studies is difficult because of a lack of knowledge accumulation through the validation of empirical research findings as well as the variety of health outcomes and methodological design. Furthermore, clear conclusions about the health benefits of Green and Blue spaces are difficult to infer from the meta-analysis. Finally, some recommendations for interdisciplinary research are outlined to overcome the current lack of knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]