Socioecosystems Indiscipline as a Requirement of the Field

The idea of socioecosystems answers the growing need to understand, in the context of the Anthropocene, how adaptive processes interact, and how that interplay results in the coevolution of living beings. Studying socioecosystems means taking into account the diversity of temporal and physical scales in order to grasp how ecological, social and economic forces are interwoven. Based on these drivers, the complex dynamics that determine the habitability of the Earth emerge.

This book analyzes, through concrete cases from regional socioecosystems on several continents, how research action has provided answers to problems related to agriculture, health and the conservation of biodiversity. It demonstrates that these undertakings could not have succeeded without the combined efforts of the communities of living beings and objects, the community of knowledge and the communities of action. These examples are accompanied by a reflection on the conditions that make it possible to bring this research to completion.

Foreword: The Knowledge Community at the Service of Communities xi
Arnaud MACÉ

Preface xix
Patrick GIRAUDOUX

Chapter 1. Agricultural Changes and Population Outbreaks of Grassland Voles 1
Patrick GIRAUDOUX

1.1. Introduction 2

1.2. The European Common Agricultural Policy and its national implementation, voles and their predators 4

1.2.1. Establishment of practices and landscape 4

1.2.2. Which measurement tools for which observations? 6

1.2.3. Landscapes and practices 7

1.2.4. Synchronies 10

1.2.5. Predation 12

1.2.6. Bacteria and other vole parasites 16

1.3. Controlling outbreaks and their consequences: from correlations to action 18

1.3.1. Rodenticide treatments as a quasi-experiment 18

1.3.2. The toolkit 20

1.3.3. Anthropology to the rescue of the application 25

1.3.4. The status and contribution of models 28

1.3.5. Conceptual models 28

1.3.6. Quantitative models 30

1.3.7. Toward new questions 33

1.4. What methodological lessons can be drawn from this experience? 35

1.5. Acknowledgments 43

1.6. References 43

Chapter 2. The Pollution of a River: A Sociological Investigation of Knowledge and Expertise 51
Simon CALLA

2.1. Introduction 51

2.2. Different types of knowledge to qualify the situation 55

2.2.1. At the water’s edge, indexical knowledge 55

2.2.2. In the laboratories, scientific knowledge 60

2.2.3. In the administrations, legal knowledge 65

2.3. Several groups of scientists investigating the same situation 70

2.3.1. The construction of the content of expert reports 70

2.3.2. The cohabitation of two groups of experts 73

2.3.3. River advocates and experts 76

2.4. Conclusion 81

2.5. References 83

Chapter 3. Farm Environment, Raw Milk and Immunity: A "Field" Study of Tolerance Learning 87
Dominique Angèle VUITTON, Jean-Jacques LAPLANTE and Amandine DIVARET-CHAUVEAU

3.1. Introduction: from farm disease to farm protection, a rural environmental story 88

3.2. Atopic allergic diseases: multifactorial, multidisciplinary and, paradoxically, not very rural 90

3.3. The increasing prevalence of atopic allergic diseases in the population of developed countries: an enigma of the second half of the 20th century 92

3.4. The role of the farm environment in protecting children from atopic allergic diseases 96

3.4.1. Observations from cross-sectional epidemiological studies 96

3.4.2. Farm life: a protective factor against the occurrence of allergic diseases? 98

3.5. Setting up the PASTURE cohort in Germany, Austria, Finland, Switzerland and Franche-Comté 102

3.5.1. Protection against allergic diseases by the farm environment: a confirmation 107

3.5.2. Exposure to animals and the farm microbial ecosystem 108

3.5.3. Consumption of raw milk and dairy products and exposure to the microbial ecosystem of raw milk 112

3.5.4. Dietary diversification in the first year of life and cheese consumption 116

3.6. At the crossroads: assessment and avenues still to be explored by the PASTURE cohort 117

3.6.1. The scientific achievements of nearly 20 years of the PASTURE adventure 118

3.6.2. Intestinal microbiota: the missing link? First results from the PASTURE study 119

3.6.3. Debates on the "benefit-risk" ratio and the possible contribution of the human and social sciences 120

3.7. Acknowledgments 125

3.8. References 126

Chapter 4. Ecology of Echinococcus multilocularis Transmission 137
Patrick GIRAUDOUX, Dominique Angèle VUITTON and Philip Simon CRAIG

4.1. Introduction 138

4.2. The Jura transmission system 140

4.2.1. Seasonality and microfoci in rodents 140

4.2.2. Vole outbreaks and distribution of human cases 142

4.2.3. Infection in definitive hosts 143

4.2.4. Conclusion 145

4.3. Ecology of Echinococcus multilocularis transmission in China and Kyrgyzstan 146

4.3.1. The background 146

4.3.2. Transmission and biodiversity on a continental scale 148

4.3.3. The Tibetan plateau 150

4.4. The mountains of southern Gansu and Ningxia 155

4.4.1. Gansu 155

4.4.2. Ningxia 162

4.5. Alpine meadows from Altai to Pamir 164

4.6. Conclusion 165

4.7. Acknowledgment 172

4.8. References 172

Chapter 5. "Indigenous" Views of the Disease and Risks Associated with Alveolar Echinococcosis 181
Dominique JACQUES-JOUVENOT

5.1. Introduction 181

5.2. Building scientific cooperation 184

5.3. Collaborating: working with others 186

5.4. Indigenous visions of social reality 189

5.5. Lessons learned allow us to think differently about prevention 192

5.6. Proximity to a sick person reinforces preventive behavior 195

5.7. References 198

Chapter 6. Conservation of the Black-and-White Snub-nosed Monkey 201
Eve AFONSO, Cécile CALLOU, Céline CLAUZEL, Patrick GIRAUDOUX and Li LI

6.1. Introduction 201

6.2. Historical context and issues 202

6.3. Habitat connectivity and population genetics 207

6.4. In search of lost place names 213

6.5. Animal tourism: what are the consequences for the black-and-white snub-nosed monkey? 219

6.5.1. Ecotourism feeding sites: ready-to-see animals 220

6.5.2. Ecotourism in Xiangguqing: what are the consequences for the black-and-white snub-nosed monkey? 221

6.5.3. Genetic consequences of human intervention 223

6.5.4. Feeding sites: hotspots of parasitic transmission? 226

6.6. References 230

Chapter 7. Cholera in Africa, from Fatalism to the Hope of Elimination: The Story of the Revolt Against a Status Quo 235
Didier BOMPANGUE

7.1. How can we engage in a collective approach to actionresearch in health? 236

7.2. The first years of the fight against cholera and the disillusionment of humanitarianism 241

7.3. From unpredictable to predictable cholera 251

7.3.1. A metapopulation mode of operation linked to the Great Lakes 255

7.3.2. Seasonality of cholera epidemics in lake areas 257

7.3.3. The role of lake areas in the persistence of cholera epidemics 260

7.3.4. Other determinants 262

7.3.5. The other face of cholera 264

7.4. Toward the elimination of cholera and the discovery of governance issues 265

7.5. References 271

Conclusion: Cooperation at Work: Sociology of a Scientific Standpoint 273
Dominique JACQUES-JOUVENOT and Simon CALLA

List of Authors 295

Index 297

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