Ergonomics for sustainable development: issues, models and practices from the historical analysis of the ARPEGE's French commitee Design for Sustainable Development

This paper presents the French Committee “Designing for Sustainable Development” (CDSD) and aims to show how a group of researchers and practitioners in ergonomics and psycho-ergonomics has taken up the challenges of sustainable development and (an ethic of) scientific collaboration. The historical evolution of the works and activities of the CDSC is examined. This analysis highlights a range of models, fields of action, and objects of investigation that illustrates the diversity of issues and research or interventions led by the committee. A final section proposes perspectives for the committee at different levels: methodological, epistemological, semantic, conceptual, political, and linked to the training for ergonomists. We conclude with the importance of promoting both an anthropo-centered design of work systems, in a context where the general trend remains techno-centered and techno-solutionist, and, at the same time, overcoming it to develop alternative approaches vivo-centered. A strengthened dialogue between CDSD and other disciplines is an essential way for achieving this objective.