Sylvain Brunier

A research fellow at the CNRS and a member of the Center for the Sociology of Organizations, Sylvain Brunier studies ways to reconcile the intensification of agricultural production with the mitigation of health and environmental damage. He is particularly interested in the economic strategies of agribusiness, political and professional mobilizations in defense of productivism, government regulation of pesticides, and the promises associated with digital technologies.

EDUCATION

January - September 2018
Postdoctoral fellow, Institut Francilien Recherche Innovation Société (IFRIS), (advisor: Pierre-Benoît Joly)
Research project title: “Governing agriculture from the sky: How remote sensing reshaped the Common Agricultural Policy since 1992”

July - December 2017
Postdoctoral fellow, Princeps / Centre de Sociologie des Organisations (CSO – UMR 7116) / Sciences Po 
Research project title: “Le rôle de la médecine hospitalière dans le signalement des maladies professionnelles liées aux pesticides” (with Jean-Noël Jouzel and Giovanni Prete)

2012
PhD in History, University of Grenoble
Thesis defended and carried out at the Laboratoire de Recherche Historique Rhône-Alpes (LARHRA – UMR 5190)
Dissertation title: “Conseillers et conseillères agricoles. L’amour du progrès aux temps de la « révolution silencieuse » (1945-1983)”

OTHER  RESPONSIBILITIES

• Member of the editorial board of the journal Etudes rurales
• Member of the editorial board of the journal terrains & travaux
• Facilitation of internal seminars at the CSO: CSO article seminar (with Jérôme Aust); writing and rewriting seminar (with Jean-Noël Jouzel); methodology seminar (aka La
  Ressourcerie, with Anna Egea and Olivier Pilmis)
• Elected to the Scientific Council of Sciences Po, representing rank B 
• research staff; Advisor for Paule Yacoub’s sociology dissertation (CSO, since 2023); advisor for Joseph Lamerens’s sociology dissertation (CSO, since 2026)

POLMA Project - Agricultural Machinery Policy (2019–2026)
This project brings together sociologists and historians with the cooperative L’Atelier Paysan to document the role of machinery in the development and maintenance of the productivist model
in agriculture. It draws on social science surveys conducted among stakeholders in the agricultural sector, on farms, in educational institutions, and among specialized advisory organizations. 
This project has received successive funding from
IFRIS, the Fondation de France, and ADEME’s CO3 program.

Coeditag Project - Coevolution of Equipment, Digital Technologies, and Agroecological Models. (2023–2027)
The CoEDiTAg project aims to understand the coevolution between the development trajectories of Equipment and Digital Technologies (EDiTs) and the transformation of structures, models, and organizations in the agricultural sector. This project is based on the hypothesis that the direction of this coevolution is not predetermined and that it depends, to a large extent, on the strategies of the actors involved, their socioeconomic interactions, and public policies.
Project funded under the PEPR Agroecology and Digital Technology (Agroeconum) program.

Transystor Project - Rethinking the TRANsitions of Livestock Farming in the Agri-Food SYSTems of Tomorrow. (2026–2030)
Generating knowledge to envision the future development of livestock farming from a sustainability perspective, by integrating economic, social, and political dimensions with
biotechnical dimensions, while also considering livestock farming within its broader context of agri-food systems and regional dynamics. 
Project funded under the PEPR Sustainable Livestock program.
 

• “Agricultural Transformations,” Bachelor’s Degree, Sciences Po /University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne, METIS Program, Reims.
• “Quantitative Week: Collective Research,” Master’s Degree in Comparative Research in Anthropology, History, and Sociology, EHESS, Marseille.
• “Written Sources: Qualitative Methods for Research,” Master’s Degree in Sociology, Sciences Po, Paris.

• Brunier, S., & Kotras, B. (2026). ‘Just Love Us, We'll Do the Rest’. Competing Repertoires of Agrarian Anti‐Environmentalism. Sociologia Ruralis, 66(2), e70026.
• Brunier, S., Jouzel, J. N., & Prete, G. (2026). From Blood Disorders to Data Disorder. The Thwarted Path From Onco-haematology Clinic to Occupational Cancer Epidemiology. Social Science & Medicine, 119567.
• Aguiton, S. A., Brunier, S., Kotras, B., Pessis, C., & Pinaud, S. (Eds.). (2025). Comment les machines ont pris la terre : Enquêtes sur la mécanisation de l’agriculture et ses conséquences. ENS Éditions.
• Brunier, S., & Pinaud, S. (2025). La montée en puissance de l’agriculture française : infrastructure machinique et engrenage de la production. Revue d’anthropologie des
  connaissances, 19(19-4).
• Brunier, S., & Kotras, B. (2024). Faire bloc : la contre-mobilisation agricole face à la critique environnementale dans l’espace public numérique. Sociologie, 15(2), 147-170.

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