La communication de projet : productions discursives et ajustements autour de différentes temporalités de la recherche en écologie

• Main Author: Clémence Emprin
• Format: Article
• Language: fra
• Published: ADR Temporalités 2014-01-01
• Series: Temporalités
• Subjects: biodiversity; project; communicational device; in situ experiment; discursive production; adjustment
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/temporalites/2595

A scientific research project tends to crystallize various tensions linked to time constraints. When studied as a characteristic set up, as a device in its own right, we notice that it transforms research practices and more specifically, communication practices. In the particular case of ecology, field experiment (the sign of a modernized ecology) brings along difficulties linked to the manageability of natural phenomenons and their own temporality. We examine time management practice - as well as communication about this practice - during the Inbioprocess project, in order to understand how scientists deal both with field experiment and planning constraints. Data include ethnographical and discursive material as well as interviews. Action B of the project consisted in diverting the water away from one branch of a river, during which scientists had to face delays and changes due to technical difficulties. This paper stresses the function of discursive production as a record of temporality as well as an attempt to control natural phenomenons. While scientists naturalize time criteria for evaluation, writing allows them to turn unpredictability into a narrative account. Moreover, document circulation gives the different temporalities in action a necessary complementarity. We stress the importance of adjustment practices and the risks of organizing temporalities into a hierarchy that gives more visibility to the short time of the project, rather than to the team’s longer temporality. The communicational management of temporalities appears as a central issue when pursuing a scientific project.