Round tables > The researcher in front of public action in the Americas : expert, actor or activist ?

Social responsability of the investigation round table

Thursday 15 June from 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm

Palais Hirsch, Grand amphithéâtre

Organization: Irène Delcourt (LARHRA - Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3) et Luis Miguel Camargo (CESPRA - CNRS - EHESS)

Speakers : Esther Cyna (CHCSC - Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Paris-Saclay), Eglantine Zatout (Université Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines),  Laura Lema Silva (LCE - Université Lumière Lyon 2), Tania Romero Barrios (Université Paris 8 - Vincennes Saint Denis), Cléa Fortuné (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle) et Charlotte Thomas-Hébert (CRPSCESSP)

Presentation

Enlight the past, invest in the present in order to improve the future, that is one of the main preoccupations of human and social sciences research. This round table will question the terms of engagement by the researchers when facing social issues that are considered urgent in the Americas : armed violence, health and medicalization of addictions, prison issues, minorities rights, etc. The objects, the shape and the formation of these terms will be approached, but also the particular impact of scientific production in the set-up of public action (which has to be heard here as the actions led by a public authority, alone or in partnership, in order to deal with a situation identified as an issue) in the Americas. It will feed the debate around what could be the "social responsibility" of the research in human and social sciences in the elaboration of more informed, coordinated actions, in line with the Americas' societal issues.

This round table will aim at reuniting some americanist researchers, sociologists, historians, geographers or economists whose work approaches question of urgent public action. It will allow the dialogue between these experts' experiences to answer a few fundamental questions : what is the place (and what could be the place) of their scientific work in the concrete set up of public actions, soecially in social emergency situations ? In what way these questionnings have influenced their decisions in term of scientific prodution and personal commitment ? What commitment terms have they experienced in the public arenas ? How has the (re)definition of their study objects been influenced by the prominence of these social issues ? Which relations or collaborations have they been able to set up with actors outside their discipline or outside of academic research, and what were the results ? What difficulties and obstacles have they met in their approach ?

Answer these questions, it's trying to have a better understanding of the issues of a contemporary world in constant mutation, but it is also re-thinking our scientific tools to the tes of public arenas.