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Fonder les villes : comment les terrassiers comprennent le sol
No full textThis paper questions “ epigeic” understanding of the building of the city, on the basis of an ethnographic research with foundation builders. It connects the conception of the urban ground as a blank page, on the surface of which human projects materialise, with a broader conceptual separation between the physical world of the ground and the aerial world of ideas. It shows how engineers manage to balance the soil’s underground flows with the buildings anchored on them, and how they learn how “to live with the ground”.Cet article questionne la vision « épigée » de la construction de la ville à partir d’une enquête ethnographique auprès de bâtisseurs de fondations. Il relie la conception courante du sol urbain en tant que page blanche à la surface de laquelle les projets humains se matérialisent à une séparation conceptuelle plus large entre le monde physique du sol et le monde aérien des idées. Il illustre en quoi les ingénieurs parviennent à équilibrer les flux souterrains du sol avec les bâtiments qui s’y ancrent, et apprennent à « vivre avec le sol » .Este artículo cuestiona la visión “ epigea” de la construcción de la ciudad a partir de una encuesta etnográfica entre los creadores de fundaciones. Pone en relación la concepción corriente del suelo urbano como una página blanca en cuya superficie los proyectos humanos se materializan con una separación conceptual más amplia entre el mundo físico del suelo y el mundo aéreo de las ideas. Ilustra cómo los ingenieros logran equilibrar los flujos subterráneos del suelo con los edificios allí anclados y aprenden a “ vivir con el suelo”.Meulemans Germain. Fonder les villes : comment les terrassiers comprennent le sol. In: Communications, 105, 2019. Vivants sous terre. pp. 149-159
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
The lure of pedogenesis. An anthropological foray into making urban soils in contemporary France
No full textThis thesis is an anthropological inquiry into the emergence of urban soils as matters of concern in the worlds of soil scientists and other fields more traditionally involved with cities. City soils have typically been neglected in modern thinking about nature and urbanism. They have long been framed solely as a technical question which seemed to require no further pondering until – in the last two decades – they entered the scope of the soil sciences. This thesis draws on over 13 months of multi-locale fieldwork conducted in Paris and Lorraine with soil scientists, gardeners and foundation builders. Through the lens of soil-making practices, it seeks to elucidate the specificity of new forms of urban pedogenesis, including the growth of soils and the lives of the humans associated with them. Building on scholarship in anthropology, the soil sciences, science studies, and speculative philosophy, it follows how these actors learn to be affected in the material performance of different relations between people and soils. Occasionally turning to narrative to complement analysis and more traditional ethnography, each chapter pulls a different diffractive string from the mesh of urban soil matters, and follows where it leads in what Deleuze and Guattari call an ‘itinerant’ mode of research. As ways of knowing that emerge from soil construction are described, the question of what making soils does to knowing them becomes a central thread of the thesis. In this, it looks at how soils participate in apparatuses where they become ‘lures for feelings’ – affective interweavings in which worlds are experienced.
The introduction sets the stage for the thesis, and explains how the fieldwork was conducted. It sets pointers for the rest of the work by explaining the attentive, yet critical posture it adopts towards scientific theories of soils. The thesis is then divided into two parts: the first part (chapters 1-4) presents a detailed consideration of the world being newly explored by urban soil scientists, and showcases key points of encounter between pedology, the environmental sciences and themes such as urban sprawl, ‘peak soil’, and ‘the Anthropocene’. It starts by problematizing the movement by which, in the 19th century, urban soils became ‘blackboxed’ when their hard sealing initiated a long standing separation between earth and sky. This is followed by an examination of the renewed interest towards urban soils in realms as diverse as city planning, waste management and hydraulics. The thesis then turns to exploring more specifically the impact of urban soils on soil science research in France. It describes how the new urban soil sciences invoke non-linear ecological dynamics, and how they question distinctions such as those between the living and the non-living, and between the human and the natural. In the face of this questioning, scientists started to experiment with urban soils by engaging directly in their construction through their ‘ecological engineering’. Rejecting separations between making and theory, these practices are understood by attending to soil scientist’s digging practices, described as ways of learning to be affected by soils and their liveliness. This part concludes with a study of the multispecies interactions entailed in soil ecologists’ attempts to ‘collaborate’ with earthworms and other soil organisms. An analysis of the modes of joint becoming of soils and humans at play in soil construction is developed by way of a reinterpretation of the soil sciences’ concept of pedogenesis.
These ideas are developed in the second part of the thesis (chapters 5-7), which addresses practices of urban soil construction in the fields of urban gardening and foundation building, and introduces an art and anthropology experiment. It first presents the work of urban gardeners who develop their own understanding of city soils and botany, and attempt to grow knowledge, soils and community by adapting ancient rural practices of earth working to the reclamation of city interstices. It then introduces the work of foundation builders, and shows that far from entailing soils as inert matter that would be malleable at will, their work can be characterised as a play on equilibrium across interfaces of exchange. The thesis concludes with the presentation of an art, anthropology and soil science experiment in which the author participated. In this experiment fieldwork was re-interrogated by means of narrative speculation and installation making. This finally provides the grounds from which to draw methodological conclusions for an experimental anthropology, premised on the interweaving of imagination and practice.Cette thèse présente une enquête anthropologique sur les sols urbains, et la manière dont ils deviennent un sujet de préoccupation dans le monde de la science des sols, ainsi qu’au sein d'autres domaines plus traditionnellement impliqués dans l’aménagement des villes. Longtemps conçus comme « l’armoire technique » de la ville, les sols urbains ont été négligés dans la pensée moderne sur la nature et l'urbanisme. Pourtant, à partir du début du 21e siècle, ils commencent à apparaître en tant que sujet d’étude valable en science des sols. Notre travail s'appuie sur plus de 13 mois de travail de terrain multi-situé mené en France auprès de scientifiques du sol, de jardiniers et de terrassiers. À partir d’une ethnographie de pratiques de construction du sol, nous cherchons à élucider la spécificité des nouvelles pédogénèses urbaines – un concept qui inclut la genèse des sols et des formes de vie humaine qui leur sont associées. Nous nous abstenons de définir a priori ce qui doit être considéré comme du sol « urbain », « agricole » ou « naturel », et retraçons comment ces distinctions sont effectuées au sein de pratiques diverses. Empruntant à l’anthropologie, aux sciences du sol, et aux science-studies, l’enquête suit comment, dans la performance matérielle des différentes relations entre les personnes et les sols, des acteurs apprennent à être affectés par les sols urbains. Au fur et à mesure que différents modes de connaissance des sols sont décrits, la question de savoir ce que la construction fait à la connaissance devient un fil conducteur de la thèse. En cela, nous posons que les sols prennent part à des dispositifs où ils deviennent des « appâts pour des sentirs » – des entrelacements affectifs dans lesquels les mondes sont vécus.
L'introduction installe des éléments de contexte et méthodologiques. Elle définit la posture attentive mais critique adoptée dans la suite du travail envers les théories scientifiques des sols. La première partie de la thèse (chapitres 1 à 4) présente un examen détaillé de la manière dont les scientifiques s’emparent de la question des sols urbains, et met en évidence des points de rencontre clés entre la pédologie, les sciences de l'environnement et des thèmes tels que l'étalement urbain, le « pic du sol » et « l'Anthropocène ». Nous problématisons d’abord le mouvement par lequel, au 19ème siècle, les sols urbains sont devenus une « boîte noire », alors que leur scellement initiait une séparation durable entre terre et ciel. Nous étudions ensuite les liens entre la nouvelle science des sols urbains, l’émergence d’un intérêt scientifique pour les dynamiques écologiques dites « non linéaires », et la remise en question de distinctions telles que celles entre le vivant et le non-vivant, ou entre registres humain et naturel. Ces déplacements ont débouché sur des pratiques expérimentales de construction de sols, souvent décrites comme formant la base d’une épistémologie nouvelle en science des sols. Rejetant les séparations entre pratique et théorie, nous abordons ces expérimentations à partir des pratiques de creusement des scientifiques du sol, décrites comme des manières d'apprendre à être affecté par les sols et leur vitalité. Nous complétons cette analyse à partir de l’étude des interactions multispécifiques impliquées dans les tentatives des chercheurs de « collaborer » avec des organismes du sol. Cette partie s’achève sur une proposition d’analyse des modes de devenir commun des sols et des êtres humains à partir d’une réinterprétation du concept pédologique de pédogenèse.
Ces idées sont développées plus avant dans la deuxième partie de la thèse (chapitres 5-7), qui traite des pratiques de construction de sol urbain dans les domaines du jardinage urbain et du terrassement, et introduit une expérience d'art et d'anthropologie. Nous présentons d'abord le travail des jardiniers urbains qui développent leur propre compréhension des sols et de la botanique des villes, et tentent de mieux apprivoiser ces éléments en adaptant des pratiques rurales anciennes à la culture des interstices des villes. Nous introduisons ensuite le travail des terrassiers et géotechniciens, et montrons que loin d’approcher les sols comme une matière inerte qui serait malléable à volonté, leur travail peut être défini comme un jeu sur l'équilibre entre les forces aléatoires qui caractérisent le sous-sol urbain. La thèse se termine avec la présentation d'une expérience en art, anthropologie et sciences du sol dans laquelle le travail de terrain a été réinterrogé à partir de la création de spéculations narratives et d'installations. Cette partie propose des pistes méthodologiques pour une anthropologie expérimentale, fondée sur un entrelacement plus fort entre pratiques et imagination
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Soil fiction: the experience of a neglected urban thing
No full textThis paper starts with the story of the Soil Fiction project – a residence in which artists, anthropologists and a soil-scientist worked together on developing an exhibition on urban soils – in order to address what speculative realism might bring to anthropological modes of inquiry. For more than 150 years, urban soils were left unnoticed by modern science because of their messiness and boundedness with human activities. Yet, they are a prevalent aspect of urban conditions of life. Through six months of collective work, Soil Fiction explored some of the neglected paths that attach us to urban soils. Departing from attempts to adapt modern-day science to urban soils, it imagined the practices of a minor science developed through a journey along them. These practices were given consistence through the creation of installations and films. Drawing on Stengers’s approach to speculative thinking, I discuss the importance of inventing propositions that work as ‘lures for feelings’. In this, rather than being a figment of the imagination, the craft of speculative imagining can attract experience. Fiction and exhibition making become ways to inquire into the world, to intensify hypothesis, and to forge other relationships with the world. I conclude that imaginative experiments such as Soil Fiction are not only knowledge practices in themselves, but also add more reality to the world. Responding to Ingold’s call for an anthropology that re-unites imagination and reality together, they conjure up research modes that do not discriminate between soils and our knowledge of them
Urban soils with a sideway glance
No full textThe soils of cities are becoming an important subject for the soil sciences, triggering revisions in their usual modes of research and concepts. One implication of this is the resort to the 'ecological engineering' of soils, framed as a research in soil processes through the active making of soils from scratch. In this, several voices from inside the Soil sciences call for a move from descriptive research to open-ended experimentation. A similar move has also been called for in anthropology. Ingold, notably, suggests to revive the 'craft of anthropology' (2008), encouraging anthropologists to participate in the carrying on of life through craft and experimentation, rather than restraining to retrospective accounts of its unfolding dynamics. How, then, can turns towards making resonate between the practices of soil scientists and those of the anthropologists that attempt to study them?
In this paper, I present a collaborative experiment between artists, anthropologists and soil scientists that was carried out in a series of residences near Paris between 2015 and 2016. The residential sessions consisted in a continuation and speculative exploration of the questions raised in both the soil sciences and anthropology in an experimental, creative way - addressing the intertwinement of human and soil becomings from direct engagement with them. The paper addresses how such experiments can be a research process, aimed at exploring the world 'with a sideway glance' (Ingold, 2008). The paper concludes with open questions on where anthropological investigation through art making might play a role in the future of disciplinarities
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