Sylvain Brunier

BIO

Sylvain Brunier’s research focuses on the history of modernisation projects that employ knowledge tools, advisory work, and public policies. He has recently published a book on the history of agricultural advisors, Le bonheur dans la modernité [Happiness in Modernity], in which he demonstrates this professional group’s central role in the development and implementation of agricultural policies in France after the World War Two.

His latest project is concerned with studying the current promises of “new agricultural modernisation,” which aims to reconcile intensive farming methods with the limitation of damage to health and the environment. He is particularly interested in spatial surveillance tools (satellites, sensors, geographic information systems) and in the new forms of prescriptions conveyed by firms and government administrations.

publications

• Sylvain Brunier, Olivier Pilmis. La règle et le rapporteur : Une sociologie de l’inspection. Sylvain Brunier; Olivier Pilmis. Presses des Mines, pp.206, 2020, Sciences Sociales. ⟨hal-02529589⟩
• Sylvain Brunier. Le bonheur dans la modernité : Conseillers agricoles et agriculteurs (1945-1985). ENS Éditions, pp.286, 2018, Gouvernement en question(s).⟨hal-01915025⟩
• Sylvain Brunier. Le travail des conseillers agricoles entre prescription technique et mobilisation politique (1950-1990). Sociologie du Travail, Association pour le développement de la sociologie du travail, 2015, 57 (1), pp.104 - 125. ⟨hal-01520931⟩
• Sylvain Brunier, Jean-Noël Jouzel, Giovanni Prete. L'ignorance en chaîne : la sous-reconnaissance des hémopathies professionnelles liées aux pesticides. Cent ans de sous-reconnaissance des maladies professionnelles, Presses des Mines, pp.215 - 234, 2021, 9782356716293. ⟨hal-03095668⟩
• Sylvain Brunier. Faire du foin. Reconfiguration des savoirs agronomiques et expérimentation d’un nouveau régime de conseil agricole lors de la « révolution fourragère » (1945-1960).. Margot Lyautey; Léna Humbert; Christophe Bonneuil. Histoire des modernisations agricoles au XXe siècle, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2021. ⟨hal-03506703⟩

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TEACHING ACTIVITIES

Sciences Po

• Conducting research (Master’s programme in Sociology, with J.-N. Jouzel)

University of Lausanne

• Socio-history of capitalism (Bachelor’s programme, with S. Billows and C. Lemercier)

EHESS - Marseille

• Quantification and quantitative methods (Master’s programme in Comparative research in Anthropology, History, and Sociology)

Former Positions

Collège Jean Moulin, Neuilly-Plaisance (2020) and Lycée horticole de Montreuil (2019)

• Participatory research on the health of workers and populations exposed to pesticides (with the association F93)

OTHER ACTIVITIES 

• Co-organiser of the CSO’s doctoral seminar (with A.-L. Beaussier)
• Co-organiser of the CSO’s article seminar (with J. Aust)
• Co-organiser of the CSO’s writing seminar (with J-N. Jouzel)
• Co-organiser of the EHESS’ rural history and sociology reading workshop (with S. Barral, B. Leroux, N. Migneni, E. Morena, J. Oui, and D. Thivet)
• Co-organiser of the CSO’s “Inspections” working group (with O. Pilmis)
• Member of the Solidarité Paysans association’s [Farmer Solidarity] history committee

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)”