Investiguer la possibilité d'une « culture du risque » : Ethnographie de l'habiter en milieu exposé... et prisé
Résumé
Risk management policies promote prevention and call for risk culture programmes in hazardous areas in order to fight against the phenomenon of risk oblivion that one can notice after a disaster. My university thesis - summarized in this article - questioned this possibility by investigating how we live, in everyday life, in flood-prone areas. Through an ethnographic piece of work, in particular a "discreet resident observation", the thesis seeks to identify what the inhabitants exchange about floods and how they organize their practices in relation to the risk. The field study, Lattes, is an upper middle-class suburban neighborhood located in the South East of France (Mediterranean coast). This city was built on wetlands and remains vulnerable to flash floods. This case study allows us to grasp the collective mechanisms at stake in the construction of the invisibility of a danger. The high visibility of the protection made by local policies and the comforting effect of normative sharing provided a normalization of people's trust in the protection. Through interactions, statements are built to be acceptable. It is more comfortable to "de-dramatize" than to dramatize: statements of relativism circulate more than the ones that open on the horizon of danger. Moreover, the current development of a "logic of safety" for urban risks reduction contradicts the prevention of flooding. Above all, neither the links between inhabitants nor the links with their living environment provide a sufficient collective base for the deployment of a risk culture.
Investiguer la possibilité d'une « culture du risque » : Ethnographie de l'habiter en milieu exposé… et prisé. Séverine DURAND Les politiques de gestion des risques appellent à favoriser la prévention et à développer une « culture du risque » dans les zones exposées afin d'éviter l'écueil de l'oubli, pointé du doigt après une catastrophe. L'objet de la thèse, dont les résultats sont présentés dans cet article, fut de questionner cette possibilité en investiguant comment on habite, au quotidien, un milieu exposé aux inondations. Forte d'un travail ethno-graphique sur le temps long la thèse questionne ce qui circule à propos des inondations, comment des habitants s'emparent de la question et organisent leurs pratiques en fonction du risque. Le terrain d'étude est une ville prisée du Sud-est de la France qui a connu une explosion démographique récente. Ce cas d'étude permet de comprendre les mécanismes collectivement construits de mise en invisibilité du danger. La mise en visibilité des mesures de protection et l'effet confortant du partage normatif encouragent la normalisation de la confiance en la protection. Dans l'interaction, les énoncés se formulant sans cesse dans le souci de leur acceptabilité, dédramatiser est plus confortable que de dramatiser : les énoncés de relativisation du risque circulent davantage que ceux ouvrant sur l'horizon du danger. Surtout, ni les liens entre les habitants ni les liens des habitants au milieu ne fournissent le socle suffisant à l'élaboration collective que nécessite le déploiement d'une « culture du risque ». Mots clefs : Culture du risque, inondation, habitant, quotidien, prévention. Investigating« risk culture ». Ethnography of a wealthily neighborhood in a threatened area. Risk management policies promote prevention and call for risk culture programmes in hazardous areas in order to fight against the phenomenon of risk oblivion that one can notice after a disaster. My university thesis-summarized in this article-questioned this possibility by investigating how we live, in everyday life, in flood-prone areas. Through an ethnographic piece of work, in particular a " discreet resident observation " , the thesis seeks to identify what the inhabitants exchange about floods and how they organize their practices in relation to the risk. The field study, Lattes, is an upper middle-class suburban neighborhood located in the South East of France (Mediterranean coast). This city was built on wetlands and remains vulnerable to flash floods. This case study allows us to grasp the collective mechanisms at stake in the construction of the invisibility of a danger. The high visibility of the protection made by local policies and the comforting effect of normative sharing provided a normalization of people's trust in the protection. Through interactions, statements are built to be acceptable. It is more comfortable to " de-dramatize " than to dramatize: statements of relativism circulate more than the ones that open on the horizon of danger. Moreover, the current development of a " logic of safety " for urban risks reduction contradicts the prevention of flooding. Above all, neither the links between inhabitants nor the links with their living environment provide a sufficient collective base for the deployment of a risk culture.
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