Les frontières de la mobilisation scientifique, entre recherche et administration

Many studies have emphasized the important demarcation work (boundary-work) which characterizes official arenas of scientific expertise. Comparing mobilizations on two agricultural quarantine pests in France, this article analyzes how this demarcation work also takes place in the course of research...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Giovanni Prete
Format: Article
Language:fra
Published: Société d'Anthropologie des Connaissances 2013-03-01
Series:Revue d'anthropologie des connaissances
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Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/rac/7717
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Summary:Many studies have emphasized the important demarcation work (boundary-work) which characterizes official arenas of scientific expertise. Comparing mobilizations on two agricultural quarantine pests in France, this article analyzes how this demarcation work also takes place in the course of research activities. Based on a fieldwork carried out in an applied research organization specialized in agricultural and environmental sciences, this article shows that debates on what constitutes a legitimate scientific expertise arise constantly in those organizations and influence research projects. It shows that when those projects focus on issues that have been strongly framed as public problems by governmental authorities, scientists are encouraged to intensify their efforts to distinguish their role from those of administrative and political actors. It also shows how those efforts, paradoxically, can support some forms of alignment of research orientations on the goals of public authorities.
ISSN:1760-5393