Health Risks Associated with Collective Gardens: Expertise on Urban Soils under Debate
Today we are faced with a true paradox: collective urban gardens are growing in cities whereas so little is known about urban soils. The localization of such gardens raises questions in terms of health risks since many of them have been (and still are) implanted on abandoned land. Some points in controversy are growing to know whether urban soils can or cannot receive cultures designed for food, which we analyze through two expertise reports. We will confront the technical guidelines with the notion of « involved science ,» first in order to clarify the intentions and values underlying the expertise process. After that our purpose is to understand what distinguishes these different forms of expertise on the question of urban cultures, which means the relation to knowledge and uncertainty, the relation to time, the relation to the public and the options for society.