Contact
Étienne Dufour, a doctoral student in geography and land planning at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Laboratoire Géographie-Cités), under the supervision of Sabine Barles, works in the fields of historical geography, territorial ecology, and environmental and urban history. His research project focuses on urban metabolism and on the opening of biogeochemical cycles, mainly nitrogen and phosphorus cycles. In the context of the Parisian area, he focuses on how the old techniques of agricultural recycling of urban organic waste disappeared or were marginalised during the second half of the twentieth century. He benefitted from a research agreement with the city of Paris to start his doctorate. He is an associate member of the OCAPI research project and PIREN-Seine, which seek to understand and fight against the opening of biogeochemical cycles by studying and transforming urban-rural relations and promoting the use of human excreta and organic waste in agriculture.
RCC Research Project: History of the Biogeochemical Policies of the Parisian Area from the 1940s to the 1990s
External Research Programs: OCAPI (Organisation des cycles Carbone, Azote, Phosphore dans les territoires); PIREN-Seine (Programme Interdisciplinaire de Recherche sur l'eau et l'environnement du bassin de la Seine)
Selected Publications:
- “Entre le regain et l’incendie: l’étape oubliée du compostage industriel, voie médiane abandonnée du traitement des ordures ménagères (Île-de-France, années 1940–années 1990)” [Between the Revival and the Fire: The Forgotten Stage of Industrial Composting, an Abandoned Middle Way of Household Waste Treatment (Île-de-France, 1940s–1990s)]. Flux 1, no. 131 (2023): 32–50. https://doi.org/10.3917/flux1.131.0032.
- with Sabine Barles. L’éviction du compostage des ordures ménagères et la fin de leur recyclage agricole en France et en Ile-de-France (1940–1990) : le rôle de la valorisation marchande et de la normalisation techno-scientifique [The Eviction of Composting Household Waste and the End of Its Agricultural Recycling in France and in Île-de-France (1940-1990): The Role of Commercial Valorization and Techno-Scientific Standardization]. Annual report. Paris: PIREN-Seine, 2021. https://shs.hal.science/halshs-03475808.
- with Sabine Barles. Trajectoire sociotechnique et politiques biogéochimiques. Aperçu de l’histoire du traitement des ordures ménagères en région parisienne de 1945 aux années 1990 [Sociotechnical Trajectory and Biogeochemical Policies. Overview of the History of Household Waste Treatment in the Paris Region from 1945 to the 1990s]. Annual report. Paris: PIREN-Seine, 2020. https://hal.science/halshs-03546069v1.