Research Director at INRAE (LESSEM)
Céline Granjou is a sociologist and senior researcher at the IRSTEA, Université Grenoble-Alpes. She worked as a guest researcher at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) in Australia in 2013-2014. Her research is in the fields of the sociology of science and technology and environmental sociology.
She has worked on policies pertaining to knowledge on biodiversity and nature conservation, with a focus on the ways in which “relevant science” is defined and practised, and on the concept of “epistemic engagements”.
She looks at the development of expertise and collective action methods focused on knowledge and governing futures (e.g. modelling and scenario building). Her research explores the realignment of communities of knowledge and of practice with agendas and objectives that anticipate global changes (prediction, mitigation, adaptation), as well as the development of scientific promises around securing or optimizing the functions and services provided by ecosystems.
Céline Granjou is currently coordinating an interdisciplinary project on soil knowledge and scenarios in collaboration with soil science researchers. In particular, the project looks at redefining the soil as a climate actor, along with the cultural repercussions that the development of metagenomic environmental technologies have on our relationship to the soil as a living, dynamic, and functional entity.
Research fields:
Health and environmental risks; expertise; science/society interfaces; nature policies; biodiversity practices and knowledge; the role of eco-climactic models and scenarios; relationships to soil microbial life; carbon sequestration in the soil; biological infrastructure (artificial ecosystems) for life in space; environmental anticipation policies.
Teaching activities:
- Methodology seminar: “Insights into European Health and Risk Issues”, Institut d’Etudes Politiques, Grenoble, aimed at foreign students (taught in English), 18 hours.
- M1 course for the Master’s degree in Techniques, Science and Political Decisions, entitled “Sociologie des risques et de l’expertise”, UIEP Grenoble, 12 hours.
Selected bibliography:
Articles:
- Granjou, C., Walker, J., 2016. “Promises that matter. Reconfiguring ecology in the ecotrons”, Science and Technology Studies, vol. 29 no. 3, pp. 49-67.
- Granjou, C., Arpin I., 2015. “Epistemic commitments. Making relevant science”, Science Technology and Human Values, 40(6), pp. 1022- 1046
Books:
Granjou, C., 2015. Sociologie des changements environnementaux, Futurs de la nature. Iste Editions, London.
Granjou, C., 2013. Micropolitiques de la biodiversité. Experts et professionnels de la nature. Brussels, Editions Peter Lang. December 2013.
- Granjou, C., Barbier, M., 2010, Métamorphoses de l’expertise. Précaution et maladies à prions. éditions Quae, collection Natures Sociales.