PhD contract (M/F): Facing the urban mine in the energy transition

22 Mar 2024
Job Information

Organisation/Company

CNRS

Department

Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Solidarités, Sociétés, Territoires

Research Field

Sociology
Juridical sciences
Criminology

Researcher Profile

First Stage Researcher (R1)

Country

France

Application Deadline

11 Apr 2024 – 23:59 (UTC)

Type of Contract

Temporary

Job Status

Full-time

Hours Per Week

35

Offer Starting Date

1 Sep 2024

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

Not funded by an EU programme

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

Offer Description

The thesis will be an interdisciplinary one, requiring the candidate to work in tandem with a PhD student in Geosciences and Process Engineering and to interact closely with the entire FeMineTal project team. The PhD student will take part in the project’s progress meetings and will be responsible for organising some of them.
The thesis will be carried out within the Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Solidarités, Sociétés, Territoires (LISST), a joint research unit of the Université Jean Jaurès and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. The PhD student will be part of the LISST-CERS team.
Working with the IRL Environnement-Santé-Sociétés – IRL3189 ESS (CNRS, Université de Dakar), partners in the project, the PhD student will be required to spend long periods in the field at the Sebikotane site, near Dakar, Senegal.
The doctoral student will be a member of the TESC doctoral school at Toulouse Jean Jaurès University. He/she will be employed by the CNRS on a 36-month doctoral contract.
Thesis work will be co-directed by Béatrice Milard (Professor of Sociology at LISST) and Yann-Philippe Tastevin (Anthropologist at CNRS).
Candidates must have at least 5 years’ post-graduate experience in research. The proposed subject requires above all a pronounced interest in both field work and interdisciplinary research. The candidate should have a strong grounding in sociology, preferably in network analysis. An interest in environmental sciences would also be appreciated.

Presentation of the thesis project:
The energy transition is putting pressure on metal georesources, which is set to increase significantly over the next few years. In the “wicked problem of the anthropocene” (Liu et al., 2015), development strategies are often at odds with one another. For example, the recycling of materials, which may appear virtuous in the North, can be a source of nuisance in the South, affecting the health of inhabitants and polluting their territories.
The thesis will be part of the FeMineTal project, the aim of which is to support and engage in the collective construction of the trajectory of an area in West Africa specialising in the recycling of lead and iron, where the collection and reprocessing of a metal turns the urban area into a producer of raw metal (Graedel, 2011).
Following initial concerns expressed by local residents about the impact of factory activity on air quality and the living environment, a consortium was set up as part of the AirGeo project (2021-2023), defining a study area around Sebikotane, 45 km from Dakar in Senegal. This small town, which is undergoing very rapid urbanisation, is a strategic location for recycling metals on an industrial scale, making it an “urban mine”. The site is home to a lead smelter that recycles a large proportion of the batteries collected in West Africa, as well as two steel recycling plants. By linking the analysis of international flows of materials with local contamination caused by metallurgical processes, the approach documents a blind spot in globalised recycling chains (Lhoste et al, 2022). To do this, it combines an interdisciplinary approach with participatory research. It is based on collaboration between researchers in the humanities and social sciences, process engineering, aerology and geosciences. And over and above disciplinary academic knowledge, it mobilises the knowledge of the communities and inhabitants of the area.

Scientific objectives of the thesis :
This thesis will focus on the challenges of citizen participation in the production of knowledge on pollution linked to urban mining. The Sebikotane site in Senegal offers a rich trans-disciplinary research situation, taking place over a long period of time, where new democratic ways of measuring and ‘living with’ pollution are being experimented with. How can an experiment in scientific and citizen-based biomonitoring, conducted with and from the perspective of local residents, transform not only our knowledge of pollution, but also the way we look at the area, forcing those involved to reflect together on the conditions under which it can be lived in?

Initially, the approach will be to draw on local initiatives to map the configurations and dynamics of the actors involved (residents, local authorities, associations, professionals, artists). This phase will involve observing and documenting, as well as participating in the development of these local initiatives by organising events (meetings, training, workshop facilitation). How does this experience generate transformations in terms of knowledge and citizen initiatives? What are the social and political consequences of the knowledge being produced?
Secondly, through an in-depth analysis of the social networks mobilised, the aim is to understand the role of sociability, but also of the spread of new communication technologies, and in particular online social networks, in participation, the building of trust and the constitution of the publics concerned. What kind of public sociability are we dealing with here (Milard 2024)? How concerted are the collective actions? How and by whom are they constructed and transformed over time? What communities of action are emerging, and what resources and values do they draw on? How sustainable are they?

Finally, how should it be possible to live with factories in ways that involve rehabilitation, repair, redevelopment or regeneration? Surveys will be carried out to observe the greening projects and the relationships between factories, residents and local authorities that are underway. The construction in action of this public science will be another subject of investigation in this thesis. The conceptualisation of this experience and its dissemination in international networks will form part of a dynamic of ‘sustainability sciences’ around recycling that will echo the sites in Occitanie.

Methods:
Ethnography: The fieldwork is an ethnography that requires a long-term presence in Sebikotane, the building of close and trusting relationships with certain respondents, careful listening and patient work over several months to carry out individual and group interviews and questionnaires.
Social network analysis: The candidate will be able to use social network analysis to collect data and study the group of actors involved in the urban mine. The classic methods of this approach can be used, especially as they enable the identification of possible relationships and circulations between heterogeneous groups such as citizens, scientists, industrialists and politicians.
Sharing and feedback with the public: The project will also involve close collaboration with non-academic stakeholders, to whom the research processes and results, as well as their implications, will need to be presented and discussed. This will take the form of the organisation of events for sharing results, for the co-creation of initiatives, facilitation and mediation, the development of co-constructed knowledge, etc.

Bibliographic references:
Graedel, T.E., Allwood, J., Birat, J.-P., Buchert, M., Hagelüken, C., Reck, B.K., Sibley, S.F. and Sonnemann, G. (2011). What Do We Know About Metal Recycling Rates?. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 15: 355-366. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1530-9290.2011.00342.x
Lhoste, P., Tastevin, Y.-P., De Bercegol R., Gowda, S., Macouin, M., Cassayre, L. (2022). L’interdisciplinarité en actes : le recyclage artisanal du plomb dans les ateliers de l’Uttar Pradesh, Tracés. Revue de Sciences humaines, 47–74.
https://doi.org/10.4000/traces.14686
Liu, J. et al. (2015). Systems integration for global sustainability. Science, 347,
Milard B. (2024). Les nouvelles sociabilités, Paris, Armand Colin.

Requirements

Research Field

Sociology

Education Level

Master Degree or equivalent

Research Field

Juridical sciences

Education Level

Master Degree or equivalent

Research Field

Criminology

Education Level

Master Degree or equivalent

Languages

FRENCH

Level

Basic

Research Field

Sociology

Years of Research Experience

None

Research Field

Juridical sciences

Years of Research Experience

None

Research Field

Criminology

Years of Research Experience

None

Additional Information
Additional comments

The application file must contain the following information
– Concise curriculum vitae, including current professional status and degrees obtained
– Master’s degree transcript
– Master’s dissertation
– Level of English
– A cover letter stating how the profile of the applicant matches the proposed research area.

Website for additional job details

https://emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/Doctorant/UMR5193-BEAMIL-004/Default.aspx

Work Location(s)

Number of offers available

1

Company/Institute

Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Solidarités, Sociétés, Territoires

Country

France

City

TOULOUSE

Geofield

Where to apply

Website

https://emploi.cnrs.fr/Candidat/Offre/UMR5193-BEAMIL-004/Candidater.aspx

Contact

City

TOULOUSE

Website

https://lisst.univ-tlse2.fr

STATUS: EXPIRED