Étudier une innovation en cours de diffusion : le parcours de recherche d’un acteur embarqué dans les réseaux des handi-escalades

Abstract

Based on research carried out in the various networks of players offering adapted climbing practices for people with disabilities, this article describes the transformations experienced by the researcher during a site survey based on an ethnosociological approach. While the theoretical framework of the sociology of innovation has enabled us to highlight the state of diffusion and stabilization of a social innovation process, the posture of the actor involved, inscribed in the long term, has led us to question the author’s relationship to an object that brings together personal sporting practice, professional involvement and the scientific approach. The sometimes intimate relationship between the insider and the field initially facilitated access to data, before requiring a reflexive step back, in which the logbook plays a central role. By recognizing that they themselves are actors in the network under study, researchers engaged in observational participation are led to accept a personal transformation that gradually reorients the research object itself.