Natures sociales

This book describes and analyses how the Baka Pygmies changed in Cameroon at the turn of the 1960s with the adoption of agriculture and permanent dwellings. Their move from a hunting and gathering economy to an economy that includes agriculture is an ideal framework for more general reflection on the social dynamics, changes in societies and sustainable development.

This work presents a sociological analysis of the environmental question from its emergence in France in the late 1960s until now. A protests and claims issue, its first purpose was to raise doubts over the method of industrial development before becoming a powerful vector of social standardisation, raising with sociologists the question of relations between politics, economics and ideology. The way in which both the various social and natural science disciplines have seized on this question helps in the social construction of this purpose and throws into question the current position of scientists faced with environmental issues.

This book reflects the conflict which has been raging since 1992 between the world of pastoralism and wolf protection campaigners. The author emphasises the need for an active wolf management policy if these two worlds are to live peacefully side by side.

This book offers a sociological lecture on conversions of the scientific expertise relating to the "mad cow" crisis. It explores the complexity of questions raised by changes in the recourse to science to manage the risks.