How ecological indicators construction reveals social changes – the case of lakes and rivers in France
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2009
- handle: 10670/1.3qi9oq
- hal: hal-01757809
info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess
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Science and Technology Studies History Social Studies Ecological Indicator Freshwater FranceSujets proches
Indicators, Environmental Environmental indices Indices, Environmental Ecological indicators Indexes, Environmental Environmental indexes Biological indicators Environmental indicators, Biological Biological environmental indicators Ecological indicators Bioindicators Sentinel organismsCiter ce document
Gabrielle Bouleau et al., « How ecological indicators construction reveals social changes – the case of lakes and rivers in France », Archive Ouverte d'INRAE, ID : 10670/1.3qi9oq
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Social and scientific factors are deeply enmeshed in each other within the development and the use of ecological indicators (EI). Yet low research has assessed which factors contribute to selecting ecological indicators on the long-term. This article proposes to study the historical construction of EI by examining ecological, political, and social background of specific places where EI were developed, in France on lakes and rivers. Our major findings in France were that ecological indicators were never optimised for the present market or political arena. Instead EI development was typically recycling previous tools that were elaborated for other purposes by environmentally committed outsiders, without regular funding. We found that regular funding for monitoring an EI was only provided when it matched an institution's goal. Beyond the geographically limited relevance of the case studies, these results therefore improve the theoretical framework we deploy when constructing or relying on indicators.