Marmots, scientific expertise and life management

The project, run by the Master’s degree in Scientific and Technical Communication and Culture (CCST) at Grenoble Alpes University, aims to analyze contemporary issues in the cultural mediation of science and nature in society. Using the case of mountain areas, the aim is to understand the growing complexity of these relationships, and to define what we call “science”, “scientific culture” and “audiences”. Scientific and ecological issues have gone beyond the confines of research institutions to become public problems, addressed by experts, professionalized communication, associations and public action.

Each year, the Croscus project focuses on a different theme in an Alpine region. After the wolf issue in 2019, flora conservation in 2021, transnational mobility in 2022 and gypsum quarries in 2023, this year’s focus is on the marmot controversy. The base camp will be set up in Bramans, Maurienne (Savoie).

Adopting a distanced, reflexive and symmetrical posture with regard to the interplay of actors and arguments, this immersion should enable us to grasp the complexity and hybrid nature of situations linked to the presence of marmots and their effects on human activities, considered by some to be harmful. Or how the understanding of this socio-scientific controversy cannot be reduced to strictly technical, scientific or deterritorialized answers.

The project articulates several educational formats (field survey, research seminar and creative workshop) that can give rise to various forms of scientific communication and mediation: a popular science video, a stream on Twitch and scientific communication proposals for the Vanoise National Park.