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Soraya Boudia
Université Paris Cité

Power and powerlessness of science in the age of global environmental crisis

 

Abstract:

For several decades, chemical contamination of the environment by pesticides, PCBs, plastics or heavy metals, whether from mining, industrial production or consumer processes, has been a central concern for a range of experts, NGOs and national and transnational public authorities. More recently, a group of researchers has announced that chemical pollution has crossed a fifth planetary limit (Person et al 2022). This "toxification" of ecosystems and bodies, accentuated by climate change, is at the root of degraded living conditions for many of the planet's populations. In spite of decades of research on toxicants, along with the growing role of scientific expertise in public policy and the unprecedented rise in the number of national and international institutions dealing with environmental issues, problems surrounding contaminants and their environmental and health effects have never appeared so important, sometimes to the point of appearing insurmountable.

This paper examines the roles of scientific knowledge and expertise in the definition and management of toxic issues. It looks at complex historical, social, and political dynamics, made up of public controversies, environmental and health crises, economic interests, and political responses, and demonstrates how and to what extent scientific knowledge about environmental pollution has been caught between scientific, economic, and political imperatives.

Soraya Boudia

Soraya Boudia és historiadora i sociòloga de la ciència, la tecnologia i el medi ambient, professora de sociologia a la Université Paris Cité, membre del Centre de recherche, médecine, science, santé, santé mentale, société (CERMES3, UMR 8211 CNRS-INSERM -EHESS -Universitat de la Cité de París).

Està particularment interessada en els riscos sanitaris, ambientals i tecnològics, proposant primer una sociohistòria del risc i la societat del risc, després una anàlisi de les transformacions dels modes de govern de les substàncies tòxiques. El seu projecte actual se centra en les transformacions del coneixement i les polítiques de residus i residus tòxics a l'era de l'Antropocè.

Entre les seves publicacions destaquen, amb N. Jas, Gouverner un monde toxique (Paris, Editions Quae, 2019) et Powerless Science? The Making of the Toxic World in the Twentieth Century, New York et Oxford, Berghahn Books, 2014 (paperbook en 2016) ; amb  Les mises en économie de l’environnement, numéro spécial Écologie & Politique, 52, 2016 ; avec E. Henry, La mondialisation des risques. Une histoire politique et transnationale des risques sanitaires environnementaux, Rennes, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2015.