S11

Community astronomy. Where does the French astronomy community stand?

Communauté

Contact : cuby@cfht.hawaii.edu

Main language for discussions / Langue principale des échanges oraux : ENGLISH

Several professional associations, committees, and agencies (e.g., the Astro2020 report, CASCA, the INSU/AA “prospective” report, etc.) have made strong recommendations calling on our profession to adopt a community astronomy model. These recommendations challenge our approach to the profession, the projects we build on Indigenous lands, our relationships with the populations we interact with, and with society in general. These essential questions are all the more important at a time when science is under attack in many countries and societies.

Other disciplines, such as archaeology, have long been engaged in the development of community-based models. Our profession is also receiving increasing attention from social scientists, in particular, but not exclusively, because of our handling of the situation in Hawaii, where the Thirty Meter Telescope project has been at a standstill for more than a decade, leading to major protests in 2015 and 2019, and which is probably the biggest conflict between a scientific project or community and a local population.

The first part of the workshop will consist of invited and contributed talks / testimonies. The second part will be a working session during which participants will develop proposals and suggestions for the French astronomical community to actively contribute to the implementation of this new model.

SOC : Hervé Aussel, Kara Dumaguin, Claire Moutou, Céline Reylé