Maintenir la vigilance

Abstract

Cet article s’intéresse aux conditions de maintien et de pérennisation des dispositifs et des organisations chargées de la gestion préventive de phénomènes intermittents de faible fréquence soumis à l’épreuve de l’attente. Il propose une lecture sociologique centrée sur les modalités d’instauration et de fonctionnement d’un dispositif de gestion des invasions de criquets pèlerins en Mauritanie. À partir d’une analyse empirique à trois niveaux (étude des conditions historiques de la structuration du dispositif de lutte préventive contre les invasions acridiennes, étude des discours gestionnaires contrastés qui accompagnent la fabrique d’une attente vigilante et étude ethnographique au sein d’un centre de lutte contre les invasions de criquets pèlerins), les auteurs proposent une analyse interprétative qui débouche sur la proposition et la caractérisation de la notion d’objet-frontière-transitionnel. Ce travail propose une contribution originale à l’analyse des modalités de surveillance dans la structuration des régimes biosécuritaires impliquant des formes de vie instables.

Locusts and People: Integrating the Social Sciences in Sustainable Locust Management

“…Throughout history, humans have predominantly considered locusts as a threat and have tried to protect themselves from them. Until about the last one hundred years, locusts were described as literally falling from the sky and anticipating invasions was impossible [9]. The urgency to find solutions to this agricultural challenge led governments Agronomy 2021, 11, 951 2 of 16 to support scientific research, locust ecology in particular, to locate main breeding areas (outbreak areas) and develop more efficient survey and control methods [10].…”

“…Such papers may involve both entomologists/natural scientists alongside social scientists (interdisciplinary approach) and practitioners (transdisciplinary approach) who sometimes have a strong interest in social sciencesand can even be double-hatted at the same time, being a practitioner or entomologist and trained as a social scientist. These contributions also reflect diverse possible applications: while some of them aim to describe and understand social phenomenon from an analytical point of view [9], others are clearly oriented towards action: they urge some changes in the ways we are thinking, managing and governing locusts outbreaks [19,48], are assessing the economic feasibility of current management strategies [25] or are exploring the possibility to use renewed instruments in locust management, such as payments for ecosystem services [52] or compensation funds [47]. A framework to summarize some of the main types of studies in locust science that include social sciences, depending on their disciplinary approach and on their applications, from more analytical to more applied.…”

“…Diverse disciplinary approaches can be found in the social science literature on locusts: contributions can be embedded in one subdiscipline of the social sciences, such as sociology [9] or economics [25]; they can emerge from social science fields that are specifically interested in environmental issues, such as environmental history [10] or political ecology [51]; finally, they can come from interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary groups of authors who are willing to address the social variables impacting locust management [31,48]. Such papers may involve both entomologists/natural scientists alongside social scientists (interdisciplinary approach) and practitioners (transdisciplinary approach) who sometimes have a strong interest in social sciences and can even be double-hatted at the same time, being a practitioner or entomologist and trained as a social scientist.…”

“…The French sociologist Doré and colleagues studiedthe maintenance of vigilance during recession times [9,90]. In a time when the efficiency of the preventive control system was questioned, their work was an attempt to understand the failures of the preventive system that led to the 2003-2005 desert locust invasion.…”

“…For example, the authors discussed the necessity to integrate the complexity of organizational and governance issues in a multi-level actor system, and to no longer think of international action only as the game of war against locusts, but also as a permanent biovigilance, which equitably distributes risks among the players [90]. Stopping the erosion of vigilance thus relies on the perpetuation of a The French sociologist Doré and colleagues studied the maintenance of vigilance during recession times [9,90]. In a time when the efficiency of the preventive control system was questioned, their work was an attempt to understand the failures of the preventive system that led to the 2003-2005 desert locust invasion.…”