Florence Bétrisey
Junior lecturer
At IGD until 2021

My research work, carried out at the University of Bern and then Lausanne, has the general objective of understanding the genesis of institutional arrangements in the (agro)-environmental field, as well as the different ways in which actors appropriate them and make them legitimate. I am also interested in the role played by scientific knowledge in these processes and how this knowledge is produced.

I have worked on objects as diverse as peri-urban agriculture in Kathmandu (Nepal), drinking water supply in the form of a cooperative in the metropolis of Santa Cruz (Bolivia), or the institutionalization of nature conservation tools such as Payments for Environmental Services in Rural Areas in Eastern Bolivia.

Today I am interested in agricultural biodiversity, more particularly in the genetic diversity of cultivated plants and the diversity of the instruments that aim to preserve and enhance it. This also leads me to critically explore the functioning of seed markets, breeding programs and to question the notions of domestication, wild plants, weeds, "forgotten" varieties and superfoods.

My research aims to critically analyse the socio-political implications of these arrangements in terms of social, environmental and ecological justice.