Beyond collegiality in environmental vigilance

Abstract

The participatory turn in environmental monitoring is illustrative of several contemporary trends: in the context of political injunctions to participate actively in public life, it brings together sociotechnical changes associated with the multiplication of digital devices and organizational evolutions influenced by the widespread integration of knowledge infrastructures. This introductory article argues that participation in environmental monitoring initiatives cannot be understood by focusing on changes in collegiality that characterize how they are designed and carried out. We propose the concept of mediation as an avenue for exploring the issues that confront those who promote and analyze these initiatives. Mediation provides a way of examining their architecture, their governance in terms of a systemic understanding of how they distribute power, and the reflexive positioning of social science researchers that they imply. Thinking about the uncertainty of the environmental data produced, their heterogeneous nature and their scope of potential use appears a more fruitful line of inquiry.