La pollution atmosphérique en ligne(s)

Abstract

In 2008, close to 500 emails were exchanged between people living in and around Paris and Airparif, an organization specialized in monitoring the quality of air in Ile-de-France (Paris and surrounding areas). Our case study shows that this "virtual correspondence" materializes and actualizes a transient phenomenon that would otherwise leave no trace. The effectiveness of these statements on the air pollution is based above all on the writers' legitimacy in speaking out. Their emails are individual statements, disconnected from one another, with neither a spokesperson nor a collective. The intention is to secure the recognition of a singular problem: personalized neighbourhood air pollution. Yet, through this set of emails we also see emerging a potential recognition of singular cases to which a more general value can be granted. By examining the contribution of these writings to the definition of pollution problems, our aim is to present our first study on lay expertise on this issue.

Keywords

• monitoring
• sociology
• air pollution
• emails
• lay expertise
• Paris and Ile-de-France