The Bibliographic Database ‘Environment/Social Sciences’ (BESS) was created by the FMSH in 1989, at the request of the Interdisciplinary Research Programme on Environment (Programme interdisciplinaire de recherche sur l’environnement, PIREN) of the National Centre for Scientific Research (Centre national de la recherché scientifique – CNRS). It works in collaboration with the International Research Centre on Environment and Development (Centre international de recherche sur l’environnement et le développement, CIRED - CNRS / École des Ponts ParisTech / EHESS / CIRAD / AgroParisTech).
Between 1989 and 2010, circa 18,000 documents were listed. These assume a memory function and enable to follow up on the evolution of issues, research objects and methodologies at the crossroads between social sciences and environmental problems at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. Given the recent dynamics of this research, a reflection has been launched and preliminary contacts established in order to transform the BESS into a real ‘social space’ for research in environment/social sciences, thus bringing together the bibliographic database (with, when appropriate, full texts), a moderated discussion forum in connection with the base, as well as the participants’ research.
