Suzanne de Cheveigné

Directrice de recherche émérite (senior researcher emeritus), CNRS
Directrice du Centre Norbert Elias (2012–2015)

 

Sociologie
Sciences de l’information et de la communication
Relations entre les sciences, les techniques, l’environnement et la société
Médias et sciences
Genre et sciences
Changement climatique
Précarité énergétique

 

suzanne.de-cheveigne@univ-amu.fr
IdRef

Parcours et travaux scientifiques

[English below]

Suzanne de Cheveigné est directrice de recherche émérite au Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique et a dirigé le Centre Norbert Elias de 2012 à 2015. Elle a été Visiting Fellow au London School of Economics. Elle est membre du comité éditorial de la revue Science Communication, autrice de L’Environnement dans le journal televise – Médiateurs et visions du monde et co-autrice de Les Biotechnologies en débat – Pour une démocratie scientifique. Elle a présidé le groupe d’experts de la Commission Européenne, qui a produit le rapport « The Gender Challenge in Research Funding », et le groupe d’experts chargé de l’évaluation à mi-parcours de l’intégration du genre dans le programme Horizon2020.

Suzanne de Cheveigné a débuté sa carrière en physique de la matière condensée au Groupe de Physique des Solides de l’École Normale Supérieure (recrutée à l’Université Paris VII en 1977, détachée au CNRS en 1984, intégrée en 1989). Ses premiers travaux ont porté sur l’étude de phénomènes de surface ou d’interface, analysant la manière dont des molécules s’attachent sur des surfaces de métaux ou d’oxydes aux très basses températures, avec une thèse d’État soutenue en 1981. Elle a ensuite travaillé pendant une dizaine d’années dans le domaine de la physique non-linéaire, sur les instabilités dynamiques qui apparaissent dans des systèmes hors équilibre, et particulièrement lors de la solidification directionnelle de liquides.

Depuis le milieu des années 1990, ses travaux de recherche portent sur les relations entre les sciences, les techniques, l’environnement et la société et s’attachent, au-delà d’un examen des conditions de transfert vers le public des résultats ou de la démarche des scientifiques, à comprendre l’ensemble des jugements et des exigences – éthiques et démocratiques entre autres – que la société exprime à l’égard des sciences. Les questions environnementales et climatiques illustrent parfaitement l’intrication de préoccupations d’ordre scientifiques, politique, sociales et économiques. Suzanne de Cheveigné s’est largement attachée à l’analyse des discours des médias, en tant que lieu important de débat public, et de leur réception autour de ces thèmes. Il en découle une réflexion théorique plus large sur la place du savoir scientifique dans une société démocratique. Des travaux sur la précarité énergétique puis sur les dimensions sociales du changement climatique ont fourni un autre terrain d’observation de la construction sociale des questions environnementales. Enfin, des enquêtes et des travaux d’expertise sur la prise en compte du genre dans la recherche scientifique ouvrent une dimension épistémologique.

Résumé

My research is situated at the socio-technological interface and concerns the way societies handle scientific, technological and environmental issues. I study media discourse and social practices, more recently around climate change and fuel poverty, to understand different types of relations to science and technology and to natural environments as well as the requirements – ethical and democratic, among others – that citizens express in these areas. Gender in research is also an important research topic for me.

I began my career as a physicist in Solid State Physics (at the Groupe de physique des solides de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure (GPS-ENS), Paris) in 1974, working on surface and interface phenomena. I first studied the way molecules fix onto metal or oxide surfaces at very low temperatures using electron tunnelling spectroscopy (Thèse d’Etat in 1981). In a second period, I worked on dynamic instabilities in out-of-equilibrium systems, more specifically on the cellular structures and dendrites that appear at the solid-liquid interface of a slightly impure material being progressively solidified. This was a model case for the study of non-linear phenomena but also had practical applications for the solidification of metal alloys.

After eighteen years of fruitful research in a physics laboratory, I decided to change subjects more radically and to work on the relations between science, technology and society. To be properly integrated in my new field, I moved in 1993 to the Laboratoire Communication et Politique, specialised in the sociology of media communication. There, and then from 2004 in Centre Norbert Elias in Marseille, I have carried out research on the way the different actors concerned – scientists, experts, politicians, journalists, and citizens – relate to each other and to the material world around them. From a theoretical and methodological point of view, my work combines socio-semiotic discourse analysis of the form and content of media discourse with micro-sociological qualitative methods to understand media reception but also more general social representations of science, technology and the environment.

Among my research topics in the science and society field:

• A comparative analysis of the way French newspapers announced the two Nobel Physics prizes won successively by P.G. de Gennes and G. Charpak, which allowed me to understand the variety of media discourse about science (see de CHEVEIGNÉ, S. and E. VERON, (1994) « The Nobel on First Page: The Nobel Physics Prizes in French Newspapers » Public Understanding of Science 3 135);
• A reception study of science programs on French television, carried out with adults and children, scientists and TV producers, to understand the logics and strategies of the different actors involved (see de CHEVEIGNÉ, S. (1999), « Talking About Science on TV : Forms and Reception of Science Programmes on French Television » in J. Gripsrud (dir.), Television and Common Knowledge. Routledge, p. 185-197);
• A comparative analysis of TV news coverage of environmental questions, an essential part of the social construction of the notion of environment. This study, which began in 1994, accompanied by a theoretical reflection on the role of media in society, was published as a book (de CHEVEIGNÉ, S. (2000), L’environnement dans les journaux télévisés : Médiateurs et visions du monde, Paris, CNRS Editions, 161 page). I have repeated the study 10 years later, which allowed me to observe changes in television and in environmental questions;
• A series of studies, around year 2000, on the public communication of the French research organisation, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) about questions the public would like to ask scientists, how prepared scientists are to answer them and finally, what journalists expected of the CNRS in terms of communication. I later took part in an international project on the relations between scientists and media, entitled INWEDIS (Integration of scientific expertise in public media discourses), lead by Hans Peter Peters (Research Center Jülich, Germany). Among other publications, an article appeared in Science in 2008.
• From 1996 to 2004 I co-ordinated the French team in a European project (FP5 and FP6) on « Life Sciences and European Society », lead by M. Bauer, J. Durant and G. Gaskell. This was a major project that mobilized the majority of European countries as well as the US and Canada. My contribution was to media analysis and to qualitative approaches of public perceptions. Along with several collective books published by the project, the French team published de CHEVEIGNÉ, S., D. BOY and J. C. GALLOUX (2002), Les Biotechnologies en débat, Paris, Balland.
• In 2003-04, I was one of the PIs (with N. d’Almeida et Y. Jeanneret) of a project on the place of Internet in the environmental debate, including an analysis of Web content and a micro-sociological and ethnographic study of the practices of Web site producers. (Jahnich, M. and S. de Cheveigné, Production, circulation et échange de documents: une observation des pratiques, Sciences de la société, 68: 133-149, 2006). I have come back to the subject of science communication on the Internet recently, analysing a number of science video-blogs (“Novas circulações discursivas sobre ciência” in Paulo César Castro (dir) Circulação discursiva e transformação da sociedade, Maceio, Brésil, 2018, Edufal)
• An important opening onto gender issues had appeared in my research when, in 2001, I carried out a qualitative study (45 interviews), among both researchers and support personnel in CNRS, to try to understand the mechanisms behind the « glass ceiling » effect. The results of the study, which compared the visions of women and men, pointed to difficulties shared by both but to gender-specific reactions to these common obstacles. Following on this research, I took part in a European Commission expert group on Women in research decision making (WIRDEM group, report Mapping the Maze: Getting More Women to the Top in Research, 2008), then chaired an expert group called Gender and Excellence that examined the quality of research funding procedures at national level (report The Gender Challenge in Research Funding. Assessing the European national scenes, 2009). I was later member of the Horizon 2020 Advisory group for « Gender as a cross-cutting issue » (rapporteur in 2016-18) and chaired the European Commission Expert Group on the “Interim Evaluation of Gender equality as a cross-cutting issue under Horizon 2020” in 2016-17.
• In 2007, I undertook a new line of research, in collaboration with housing specialists and NGOs, working on the social problem of energy poverty – another opportunity to bring together technical and social issues. The team I lead provided new knowledge on the experience of living in conditions fuel poverty. (Repérer – et vivre – la précarité énergétique en ville, F. Bouillon, S. Musso, J. Lees, S. de Cheveigné, Annales de la Recherche Urbaine (2015) 110: 88-97).
  This work on energy poverty brought up the issue of the collaboration between scientists and civil society organizations. I have since then taken part in several projects and reflections on the conditions of their interactions. I have also stepped over to the other side, so to speak, becoming administrator of a local NGO that combats poor housing and fuel poverty in 2013, then president of the national network in 2017 (see https://www.compagnonsbatisseurs.eu/about-us).

Publications

Enseignements / Teaching experience

I have taught with Universities of Paris VI and VII ; Institut d’Études Politiques, Rennes ; Institut Français de Presse ; University of Versailles Saint Quentin ; École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales ; University of Geneva.

Comités / Committee membership

– 1993-2007 Member of the Editorial Committee of the journal Hermès (the main French Communications Sciences journal) and co-editor 1998-2000
– 1997-2002 Member of the Scientific Committee of the yearly « Science and the Citizens » Meetings of the CNRS (Rencontres « Science et citoyens »)
– 1998-2005 Member of the Scientific Committee of the « Evaluation and Consideration of Natural and Technological Risks » funding programme (« Evaluation et prise en compte des risques naturels et technologiques ») of the French Ministry of Environment
-1998-2015 Member of the Scientific Committee of the PCST (Public Communication of Science and Technology) International Network
– 2006-2018 Member of the editorial board of Enquêtes
– 2007-2019 Member of the editorial board of Science Communication
– 2006-2007 Member of European Commission expert group on Women in Science Decision Processes (chair Maya Widmer)
– 2008 Chair of European Commission expert group on quality of procedures in research funding (Report: The Gender Challenge in Research Funding)
– 2009-2016 Advisor to FP7 projects GenSET (Increasing capacity for implementing gender action plans in science), GenPORT (An internet portal for sharing knowledge and inspiring collaborative action on gender and science)
– 2013-2015 Member of European Commission Horizon 2020 Advisory group « Science with and for Society »
– 2013-2017 Member of European Commission Horizon 2020 Advisory group for « Gender as a cross-cutting issue » (rapporteur 2016-18)
– 2013-2018 Member of European Commission Horizon 2020 Advisory group for « Climate Action, Climate Action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials »
– 2014-2019 Advisor to Horizon2020 projects PE2020 (Public Engagement Innovations for Horizon 2020) and GRANTeD (GRant AllocatioN Disparities from a gender perspective)
– 2015-2018 Member of the Board of the Regional Climate Expert Group for south-eastern France (Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur)
– 2019 Member of the Committee of Partners, French National Observatory of Energy Poverty

Evaluations

– 1994-1998 Member of the Evaluation Committee for Information and Communication Sciences (Comm. de spécialistes 71e sect.) of University of Poitiers
– 1998-2006 Member of the Evaluation Committee for Information and Communication Sciences (Comm. de spécialistes 71e sect.) of University of Paris X Nanterre
– 2000-2019 Expert to DG Research under FP5, FP6, FP7, H2020
– 2005 Selection committee, Hasselblad Professor in Public Understanding of Science, Chalmers University of Technology and Göteborg University
– 2006-2007 Mid-term evaluation of Science and Society under FP6
– 2009-2010 Evaluation for Swiss FNR : PNR 60 « Egalité des sexes »
– 2011 Project evaluation for the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology
– 2010-2013Progression and Award Board, Dublin City University
– 2015 Selection committee, Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, Paris
– 2010-2011 Member of the jury of Institut Universitaire de France (junior level chairs)
– 2016 Evaluations for European Research Council (ERC)
– 2015 Selection committee, University Paris Diderot
– 2016-2017 Chair, European Commission Expert Group on the Interim Evaluation of Gender equality as a cross-cutting issue under Horizon 2020
– 2019 Evaluations for FWO (Research Foundation Flanders) via Science Connect

Administration

2012-2015 Director, Centre Norbert Elias

Responsabilités associatives / Non-governmental organisations

2013-2019 Member of the board Compagnons Bâtisseurs Provence
2017-2019 President, National Association Compagnons Bâtisseurs

Distinctions

2019: French National Order of Merit (Chevalier)