Thesis supervisors
: Marc Barbier and Catherine Paradeise
Neither disciplinary affiliation or training, nor access to specialized workspaces and instruments, are sufficient on their own to define a scientific culture. What researchers from diverse backgrounds work on shapes a unique way of conceiving their activities, practices, and relationship to the world. Their success is irrevocably linked to a subject, to the fortune that subject encounters as an innovation in a social context that both constrains and creates it. How is this (re)conversion to a new theme organized, given that changes in funding methods now favor precisely this framework? This thesis proposes an investigation into the notion of "research domain," which we define a priori as the framework for interactions between the professional activity of researchers and society around a shared theme; it defends its epistemic dimension.
This manuscript describes in parallel the development of bioenergy, one of the main forms of so-called renewable or sustainable energy derived from biomass, its actors and their actions, in a context of strong incentives to drive a global energy transition, but also of heated social controversy. The two objectives of this thesis converge: describing the style of thinking inherent in a particular field of research is necessary to understand, beyond mere discourse and promises, the effective modes of development of an innovation (in this case, the large-scale mobilization of plants, microorganisms, or waste to produce biofuels) and, ultimately, to enable everyone to evaluate its relevance.
Date of defense: Monday, December 14, 2015
Jury
:
Marc Barbier, Director of Research at INRA, Thesis Director
Céline Granjou, Director of Research at IRSTEA, Rapporteur
Bruno Latour, University Professor at Sciences Po, Examiner
Catherine Paradeise, University Professor at the University of Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée, Thesis Director
David Pontille, Director of Research at CNRS, Examiner
François Vatin, University Professor at the University of Paris-Ouest Nanterre La Défense, Rapporteur