Suzanne de Cheveigné

Biotechnology and the European public

The latest European sample survey of public perceptions of biotechnology reveals widespread opposition to genetically modified (GM) food in much of Europe, but public attitudes to medical and environmental applications remain positive.

Interactions with the Mass Media

A survey reveals that media contacts of scientists in top R&D countries are more frequent and smooth than was previously thought.

Science-Media Interface It's Time to Reconsider

An international mail survey of 1,354 biomedical researchers in five countries has revealed that interaction with the media is widespread among this group and that this interaction is largely perceived in a positive light. Possible reasons are offered as to why the perception persists that the scientist-journalist relationship remains troubled, despite the apparent reality. This reality may have negative as well as positive implications; the potential for too much control by the scientific community of media coverage about it, as well as that for too much media influence on inner-scientific processes, are also addressed.

Gender and gatekeeping of excellence in research funding: European perspectives

Women continue to be a minority among European researchers. Access to funding is one of the keys to success in academic careers, both for women and for men, providing essential support for research and publications. Indeed, the role of competitive funding is increasing in many European national settings and success in the competition for research funding is now often used as a measure of scientific excellence at both individual and institutional level. Those who decide on allocation of research funding play thus an important gatekeeping role shaping the research system.

Nobel on the front page: the Nobel physics prizes in French newspapers

We have examined the manner in which the main French daily newspapers reported the announcement of the Nobel physics prizes given to P. G. de Gennes in 1991 and to G. Charpak in 1992. We found that their enunciative strategies could be distinguished according to two independent criterial whether or not the enunciator presents itself as familiar with scientific matters, and whether or not it attempts to explain the scientific content of the discovery. The different combinations of these strategies correspond to different relationships proposed by the newspapers to their readers. Different theories of scientific discovery also appear: discovery as the work of a team and an institution, or as the invention of a matchless individual.

Repérer – et vivre – la précarité énergétique en ville

Cet article est bâti autour d’une enquete ethnographique sur la precarite energetique conduite a Marseille et dans sa region (2007-2012). Il aborde successivement les modalites d’emergence de cette categorie d’action publique en France au cours de la derniere decennie, en comparant avec le cas britannique, la maniere dont les acteurs sociaux dits «de premiere ligne » s’en sont saisis et les realites empiriques que recouvre le phenomene du point de vue des habitants concernes. La precarite energetique peut etre analysee comme une nouvelle maniere de designer des phenomenes anciens, relatifs a la pauvrete et au mal logement, voire comme une euphemisation de ces derniers. Elle temoigne cependant aussi d’une opportunite pour penser ensemble des questions relatives aux inegalites sociales et environnementales, longtemps abordees par les sciences sociales et les pouvoirs publics de maniere separee.