Androsace – Controversy in the high mountains
2024-...Based on the case of the Androsace du Dauphiné, a protected plant, this project – the result of a joint call for projects with the Zone Atelier Alpes (ZAA) – aims to analyze how science is put into the public eye, and on what issues, based on the controversy surrounding the development of the Girose glacier.
© Angela Bolis
At La Grave, the controversial project for the third section of the Meije glacier cable car has, since 2016, raised questions about the future of the socio-ecological systems of the upper Romanche valley, and the direction to be given to the tourism transition in the face of climate change. In July 2023, ecologists identified the Androsace du Dauphine on the rocky outcrop where one of the pylons is to be erected, fuelling the controversy and renewing the issues at stake.
Now that Androsace du Dauphiné has become a public object, the aim of the project is to analyze the way in which different forms of knowledge and expertise clash in the public arena, and to identify what this conflictuality produces in “science-society” relations. More specifically:
- How is the involvement of scientists in the controversy perceived by the various players, given that the scientific approach is often assigned the role of providing “objective” information that feeds into social and economic debates from the outside?
- How do social actors seize on a scientific discovery in alpine ecology, publicize it and reappropriate the codes of “science” in order to reposition themselves in the controversy?
- How does this mobilization of research re-actualize a conflict between actors with antagonistic worldviews, marked by persistent disagreements where scientific interpretations and economic interests intersect, the latter reflecting divergent views on how science and scientists should intervene in land-use planning projects?
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