Rare birds for fuzzy jobs: A new type of water professional at the watershed scale in France
Résumé
This paper documents changes in the field of water management in France, through the analyses of the
activities of water professionals. Hydro-territory professionals work for local authorities in charge of
water management at the watershed scale. Their functions appear to be fuzzy. Yet, this paper assumes
that this fuzziness is a crucial feature as it manifests an ability to deal with ‘‘wicked’’ problems. Based
on quantitative and qualitative inquiries, this paper discusses to what extent these new kind of professionals
present themselves as, or differentiate themselves from, experts, facilitators or policy entrepreneurs.
It contributes to the studies that highlight the new water professional as a transdisciplinary
engineer capable of dealing with negotiation, cooperation or communication issues. Yet, the main result
of our study is to show the embedded dimension of hydro-territory professionals, considering water
governance as a long term issue of adjustment, assembling, fitting, in a territory and across scales
Domaines
Sciences de l'Homme et Société
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