Sociologists and hydrogeologists: how to work together?

The exploitation of natural resources often lead to negative ecological and/or social impacts, and thus such projects meet more and more opposition. Many scientific arguments are mobilized, but not necessarily well understood. The practical case analyses here is the well field project "Landes du Médoc", Gironde county, France, where water mining in a deep aquifer is planned for the benefice of Bordeaux conurbation and local villages. Fears about the impacts on the surface environment are expressed by the joint voices of environmental associations, inhabitants and foresters (the main local agricultural stakeholders).

To investigate in depths such issues, joint and integrative analyses by both sociologists and hydrogeologists should be carried out. Concretely work "on the field" are to be shared, and summaries of the scientific content and its dispute to be produced, from both sociological and hydrogeological points of view, and intended for the general public. In order to provide spaces for exchanges and information with and for the actors of the Gironde area, are envisaged a translation for non-specialists and a narrative of the history of the scientific studies. This approach consists not only in shedding light on public policies but above all in making visible the distinction points (conflicts, arguments) that have been perpetuated during the discussion of this project.

The objective is the explanation of the knowledge built and mobilized by the various institutions (including numerical modelling) without excluding the reasons for their mobilization, at the scientific and political levels. The renderings related to this approach are in keeping with the tradition of the sociology of translation and aim to propose visibility techniques (storytelling, cartography) that will play a decisive role in society's understanding of (i) the current processes (ii) the potential future evolution.