- Forthcoming papers

Technology and Innovation

List of Articles

Craftspeople have a long history of integrating new tools into their workshops, enhancing their craft. Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) is a new technology that fits into this technological continuum, with specific characteristics linked to its digital nature. It offers new perspectives through use cases applied to peripheral tasks or co-creation. However, it also presents numerous challenges related to identity, economics, legal issues, ethics, and the environment. "Keeping control" seems to be the central issue in the relationship between craftspeople and AI, in the technical mastery of the tools and all the associated decisions throughout the creative process, but also in the control of the narrative. AI can, in some cases, be an opportunity for craftspeople, but it is above all the craftspeople who are an opportunity for AI, through their uses and their relevant interaction with the tools!

This study analyses the development of bio-inputs based on beneficial indigenous microorganisms (BIM) in Cuba. The approach utilises the sectoral innovation system analysis framework and participatory workshops in five provinces to map the ecosystem of stakeholders. The results show that the technological sector structured by this innovation is organised around two chains: a state-run industrial chain and a decentralised peasant self-production chain. Three obstacles hinder widespread adoption: a shortage of inputs (molasses, packaging); certification procedures designed for industrial production units rather than self-production units; and labour shortages and commercial dysfunctions (quality, distribution). The findings conclude that widespread adoption based on a self-production trajectory relies on an institutional restructuring of technical and certification standards that recognises the heterogeneity of decentralised production.

Through a forward-looking reinterpretation of a selection of science fiction works—mostly feature films, from Alice Winocour’s Proxima to Morten Tyldum’s Passengers, including Moon, Passenger 4, Artemis, Geostorm, Space Sweepers, Ad Astra, Outland, Mars Express, and The Expanse—the author examines humanity’s expansion within the Solar System from the perspective of transportation methods and the social and territorial policies they reveal or generate. Structured according to the Qualitative Time Scale, the analysis progresses from the Programmed to the Distant. In the Programmed phase, Proxima establishes that the chemical rocket is an image of the breakdown of equality: the Earth’s gravitational well constitutes the first class barrier inscribed in the laws of physics rather than in those of humankind, instituting from the outset a triple exclusion based on energy, body, and gender. In the Accessible realm, Moon, Passenger No. 4, and Artemis depict the early stages of spatial territorialization: the exploitation of a consumable biological workforce, the Malthusian fragility of interplanetary transit systems, and the painful emergence of territorial law within the cycle of unbridled capitalism-laws-collapse-rebirth. In the Probable realm, Geostorm, Space Sweepers, and Ad Astra portray an orbital governance oscillating between conservative scientism, authoritarian corporatocracy, and psychologically devastating expansion. In the Possible realm, Mars Express, Outland, and The Expanse depict a fragmented solar system, where biology itself becomes a national border and where space law remains embryonic. In the Distant realm, Passengers confronts the capitalist interstellar project with its own physical, economic, and political absurdities. This journey will provide the author with an opportunity to formulate a series of open ethical questions about justice as a condition for the sustainability of any space expansion.

Science fiction and mythology share a fundamental anthropological function: taming the unknown through narrative. Transport is never neutral in either tradition — crossing a threshold always implies an ontological rupture. Hermes, god of passages, serves as the structuring archetype: his winged sandals prefigure spaceships; his roles as messenger and psychopomp resonate with AI, dimensional portals, and space exploration. The article proposes an integral mythanalysis: a critical archaeology of narratives distinguishing Band-Aid myths (immutable archetypes — the hero, sacrifice, the king) from butterfly myths (ancient stories metamorphosing across eras). Prometheus becomes Elon Musk; Aladdin’s carpet, the drone-taxi. In science fiction, rockets, spaceships, and stations replay ancient mythemes: the Argo, Charon’s ferry, the shamanic axis mundi. Transport reveals a political dialectic — whoever controls the passages controls collective destinies. Against the Promethean myth of unlimited conquest, our era seems to seek a figure closer to Hermes — a prudent mediator between worlds. To change the myths is to change reality itself.

The efficacy of a combined biopesticide formulation based on Trichoderma asperellum (strain PR11) and Beauveria bassiana (strain BIITA 6.2.2) was evaluated in a farmer setting on three agroforestry cocoa plantations in Ntui, Central Region, Cameroon. A randomized complete block design was used, comprising 27 plots, with monthly data collection from 20 trees per plot to assess the incidence and severity of black pod rot, mirid insect damage, and cocoa tree productivity. The results showed no significant difference between the biological and chemical treatments regarding the incidence and severity of black pod rot and mirid insect damage. Damage severity remained low for all treatments. Productivity was higher in the plots treated with biopesticides (0.80 kg/cocoa tree). These results suggest that the combined application of Trichoderma asperellum and Beauveria bassiana is an alternative to chemical pesticides for the integrated management of pests in cocoa agroforestry systems.

This article examines The Walk project and the giant puppet Little Amal as a contemporary example of politically engaged performance. The analysis focuses on the relational dynamics between performing arts, public space, and new technologies applied to puppetry. The project aims to identify the performative, aesthetic, symbolic, and media-related dimensions of the discourse on the refugee crisis, with a particular focus on refugee children and unaccompanied minors facing exile and armed violence. Throughout an 8,000-kilometer journey across Europe, Little Amal transforms public spaces into sites of encounter, collective memory, and civic dialogue. This puppet, animated through both traditional gestures and modern mechanisms, also finds powerful resonance through screens and media, which amplify the strength of its narrative and its emotional impact. The study highlights the multidisciplinary nature of the project, which combines puppetry, music, visual arts, and public space. The work The Walk thus demonstrates the power of this giant puppet to forge a dialogue between artistic creation, technical innovation, and ethical commitment within the context of contemporary migrations.

This article analyses the emergence and dynamics of innovation in micro-organism-based bio-inputs in Cambodia, in a context marked by intense agricultural intensification and growing dependence on chemical inputs. It uses a framework for analysing the innovation system through a review of the literature, the study of two pioneering cases, 48 semi-structured interviews and three participatory workshops to examine the historical trajectories, actors, barriers and levers of the devel-opment of these bio-inputs. The results show that innovation remains limited by technical constraints (perceived low effi-ciency, variable quality, lack of local resources, insufficient infrastructure), institutional constraints (lack of support policies, regulations), economic constraints (narrow markets, high costs) and social constraints (low demand, practices oriented towards chemical inputs). This combination forms a vicious circle that hinders the growth of bio-inputs. However, local initiatives – agricultural cooperatives, NGOs, researchers – reveal an emerging ecosystem around community bio-factory models and participatory approaches. Forward-looking workshops document development trajectories for two biofertilisers (compost/bokashi and EM). They highlight the importance of capacity building, quality improvement, certification, network-ing and public support.

This article reviews the most recent and outstanding Industry 4.0 technologies applied in smart warehouses. Industry 4.0 integrates innovations such as the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, and Big Data analytics to transform warehouse management and operation. Design/Methodology – This article reviews the most recent innovations in Industry 4.0 technologies applied to smart warehouses and proposes an extended warehouse model incorporating IoT and AI to enhance operational efficiency. By evaluating the implementation of these technologies, the article provides an overview of how these tools improve operational efficiency, inventory control accuracy, and process optimization through massive data generation. Findings – Efficient warehouse management faces challenges like handling large data volumes, high routing costs, space optimization, and complexities from mass product customization that impact inventory, control and efficiency. This study highlights Industry 4.0 technologies such as IoT, AI, Big Data, and robotics, as key enablers of intelligent, autonomous warehouses. While these innovations enhance operations, challenges remain in interoperability, cybersecurity and investment. The findings stress the need for simulation-based validation, specialized metrics, and a strong framework to support scalable, sustainable adoption and technology transfer across industries.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is having an increasingly significant impact on society, offering benefits such as process optimisation and improved decision-making. However, its rapid adoption also poses under-assessed risks. This exploratory study examines risk denial, a cognitive bias whereby individuals fail to acknowledge the potential negative impacts of AI. Using a mixed-methods approach involving 13 semi-structured interviews and a pre/post quantitative design, the research explores how emotional disengagement and bias influence perceptions of AI risks. Key themes that emerged include resigned acceptance, threats to employment and privacy, and the need for regulation. Participants often felt powerless, viewing the rise of AI as inevitable and beyond individual control. The study therefore calls for stronger legal frameworks, ethical standards and public education to support informed decision-making. Counterfactual scenarios and real-world examples were employed to encourage reflection and assess attitude changes. The findings suggest that emotional distance and the normalisation of AI risks contribute to passive acceptance. This highlights the importance of fostering critical engagement and societal dialogue. However, given the small sample size, the findings are preliminary and are intended to inform future research.

The digital transformation of non-life insurance services in France is a prime example of the technological disruption that is reshaping the financial services sector. Driven primarily by the adoption of artificial intelligence and the emergence of insurtech solutions, this transformation presents a complex interplay between operational gains and systemic challenges. While AI has the potential to significantly enhance productivity and reduce operational costs, its implementation raises important questions about strategic positioning, financial sustainability and ethical governance. To elucidate these dynamics, we employ the systemic framework proposed by Ivanov and Webster (2019), which links technological change to organisational restructuring and ecosystem reconfiguration. This framework allows us to examine the functional architecture of insurance enterprises, identifying which capabilities are candidates for externalisation versus internal retention, whilst also accounting for the firm’s relational dynamics with ecosystem participants, including competing insurers, artificial intelligence providers, insurtech enterprises and technology giants. Our analysis reveals that AI and insurtech solutions catalyse profound structural reconfiguration within the insurance ecosystem. This manifests as three principal transformations: migration from ex-post indemnification to ex-ante risk prevention; evolution of pricing mechanisms from segmentation-based to behaviourally informed; and transition of risk management from retrospective to prospective orientation. Through this institutional lens, we identify the barriers that constrain rapid adoption and outline a research agenda to advance the empirical understanding of how these technological and organisational changes are reshaping insurance enterprises and the broader sectoral architecture.

This article explores the influence of science fiction cinema on innovation processes in the field of artificial intelligence. Through the analysis of a corpus of approximately forty films from the 1960s to the present day, the study highlights the evolution of technophobic, technophilic, and ambivalent representations. These fictional narratives act as a “technifying imaginal world,” a concept derived from Henry Corbin’s mundus imaginalis, serving as an interface between the purely conceptual sphere and the realization of technical infrastructures. By imbuing technological mutations with profound meaning, this imaginary contributes to the social construction of expectations and stimulates the ethical reflection of designers. Drawing on Paul Ricoeur’s theory of Triple Mimesis, the article demonstrates that fiction does not merely imitate reality, but rather reconfigures the ethical and praxeological horizon of those involved in innovation. Furthermore, science fiction generates an "imaginal connection," a concept borrowed from Michel Maffesoli, which forges a social, emotional, and communal bond between engineers and scientists. Ultimately, science fiction establishes itself as the mythology of capitalism’s future, transforming both unsettling and wondrous projections into a powerful engine of technoscientific progress.

The paper presents a comparative analysis between the EU and the UK digital and operational resilience requirements for financial services. Focusing on the insurance industry, considering its role in providing cover for operational risks, and cyber-related ones in particular, it captures developments in relation to risk management practices. Specifically, commenting on the prudential provisions underpinning risk management systems, frameworks, and assessments, in line with Solvency II. The link between operational risk activities is also discussed as an extension of this comparison. Effectively capturing how disaster recovery (DR), business continuity planning (BCP), third-party risk management (TPRM) and outsourcing are reflected in digital and operational resilience approaches. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the similarities and differences between the EU and the UK regulatory regime in relation to digital and operational resilience requirements for re-insurance undertakings. Practical recommendations to support adherence to both underlying requirements are presented, assisting re-insurers operating in those jurisdictions.

We propose in this article the presentation of the solutions of the Deep tech Xvaluator in France for the co-construction of new, highly collaborative tool and processes of democratic “open qualification” [PAU 09, 12, 20]. By considering the diversity of stakeholders and their specific contexts, opinion and impact data in highly collaboration open qualification processus and the capabilities enhanced by AI, Xvaluator innovation is able to integrate ex ante the evolving determinants of opinion on perceived impacts data on all subjects of common interest. This leads our research toward the discovery and conceptualization [PAU 23] in economics, social and cognitive science of a third typology of AI (in addition to symbolic and connectionist-connective types): the Qualitative AI (QuAI) [PAU 23]. This allows to integrate as consubstantial to the pertinence of the qualification and decision-making process the human critical thinking in all its diversity as condition to co-create and access pertinent reliable data as results. These new trusted spaces and process - QuAI tool Xvaluator - could thus lead to optimal choices, and better decision making with consensus. Highly collaborative process of creation of relevance and trust, particularly through the new dynamic capabilities empowered by the Xvaluator Qualificative AI are potential creators of disruptive innovations by embarking the digital users’ contributions during all AI usages towards new digital business models reducing the fake and biased data flux and thus reducing the ecological footprint of all AI usages. Several usage functionalities are identify d as critical contributions of Xvaluator to evolutions towards a functional economy [VAI 20] and the democratization of access to reliable impact data aimed at more efficient, more ethical, innovative, disruptive tools for resilience [SCH 22] facing the current multifaceted crises: economic, climate-related, and trust-related [PAU 09, 12, 18], [ADA 18].

Depending on business activities, women owners can showcase various identities from manual know-how preservation to innovation. Analyzing interactions of 26 entreprises being supported for their creation and digitalization by the Chamber of Craft and Trades Centre-Val de Loire, we propose to explore common imaginaries and preferences of craftwomen, startup owners and industrial entreprises highlighting women craft. What type of women entrepreneur are we when we don’t “check the bank boxes”, favoring richness of encounters or polyvalence and life comfort? Our response is based on evaluating transactional distances between women craft owners and businesses, startups or manufacturers, ran by or showcasing women. Mobilizing territorialization of cooperative transactions, we analyze the impacts for business support activities, the place of digital and the negociated construction of a common imaginary of women entrepreneurship.

Biological inputs constitute one of the main agricultural innovations in response to the crisis associated with the use of chemical products. Microorganisms applied to plant nutrition and pest control thus emerge as key technologies in the transition toward sustainable agriculture. However, their development depends not only on technical aspects but also on the regulatory system that institutionalizes them. This article presents findings from an exploratory study on the production of biological inputs in Argentina and their forms of institutionalization. It analyses the context in which these innovations have emerged, the actors involved, and the system of regulations and public policies that regulate, promote, or constrain their development. Methodologically, the study combines documentary analysis with secondary and quantitative industry data from official sources, along with in-depth interviews and participant observation. The results show that, although biological inputs constitute an established technology in the country, supported by an industrial structure that reveals the presence of local firms, their institutionalization is contradictory, marked by advances and setbacks that condition their consolidation.

Due to the negative impacts associated with intensive use of chemical pesticides, biopesticides are gradually gaining recognition as a sustainable and effective alternative for managing biotic stresses in agriculture. This article provides a global overview of pesticide usage alongside the rising trend of biopesticides, with a special emphasis on Africa. Recent data analysis reveals significant regional disparities: the Americas, Europe, and certain Asian regions lead in both pesticide consumption and the number of registered biopesticide products. Conversely, Africa exhibits relatively low chemical pesticide use, averaging just 0.7 kg/ha in 2023. Meanwhile, several African countries are showing promising advancements in the adoption of biocontrol methods. The article explores the key factors driving these trends and identifies levers to promote the development of biocontrol across the continent.

In Cuba, the aim is to guarantee pork production in large-scale intensive systems by seeking efficient and safe alternatives for consumers and the environment. Prebiotics and probiotics are among the most widely used and harmless options. This research aimed to contribute to the introduction of efficient microorganism (EM) technology in pig farming at the Carnes D’Tres SME through a process of technological innovation. EM produced both inside and outside the province of Ciego de Ávila were evaluated from technical, economic, and logistical perspectives, and the effectiveness of EM as a feed additive in the diet of fattening pigs was assessed. According to the technical, economic and logistical feasibility study, it is cheaper, more practical and safer to purchase RH-Vigía EM in its solid phase and manufacture the liquid and stabilised phases on the farm than to purchase any of the other EM in their stabilised liquid phase. Adding EM to pig feed also had a positive effect, particularly during the initial weeks of fattening. It reduced morbidity, increased the live weight of the group and lowered feed costs per unit of weight gained compared to animals whose diet did not include the bioproduct.

This article presents the definition of personalized and targeted prevention and care protocols based on science, non-pharmacological interventions (NPIs), proposed by an international multidisciplinary scientific society, the Non-Pharmacological Intervention Society. It defines the scope of these health practices based on a standardized ethical and scientific evaluation framework developed over two years with more than 1000 people. Since 2024, this framework has enabled the creation of a universal heritage of intangible prevention and care protocols in a digital library, the NPIS Registry.

Mindfulness as a non-pharmacological intervention complements conventional medicine in the field of integrative health, as it is both a treatment protocol and a prevention protocol. It allows us to look at the person as a whole and no longer just as a patient suffering only from their disease. Many healthcare facilities are now using it in supportive care, chronic illness and pain, and because of its impact on the efficiency of organizations and the importance placed on care. In recent years, mindfulness has also been integrated into training courses for leadership development in organizations. Its use in the healthcare sector is therefore an important topic, and this article describes the expected impact of these measures.

Malaysia has a wide variety of traditional medicines stemming from its rich ethnic heritage, which have gradually been joined by more or less globalized complementary medicines. The practice of these medicines, which largely consist of manual therapies, is important to investigate their function as substitutes for drug interventions. This article addresses this issue by showing that the therapeutic model proposed by the Malaysian Holistic and Herbal Organization is based on a subtle combination of non-drug practices from T&C medicine, taking into account the various aspects of the disease and the patient, and promoting demedicalization. Conversely, the integrative model developed by the government, which is too reductive in its form, can only partially compensate for the strong medicalization inherent in biomedicine.

The action of “taking care” is one of the oldest gestures made towards others. Beyond health and well-being, it is appropriate to broaden the scope of these practices to the various dimensions of care with the very idea of understanding, in its unities and diversities, a variation of situations passing from acts the most. Punctual to the broadest ethical, political and prospective issues. Thus the implementation of non-medication care strategies allows us to question and wonder how the knowledge and practices of “taking care” can be re-examined in a multicultural world. To do this, it is a question of studying the conditions for applying these strategies so that they become key skills for a more sustainable and united world.

Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror series is a futuristic projection of new technologies whose primary objective is to improve our daily lives. The series examines artificial intelligence, digitalisation, gamification and robotisation of our daily lives, augmented reality and virtual reality. The mirror held up by Charlie Brooker is sometimes blackened, sometimes true to our reality. The series reflects the utopian intentions of the technologies implemented and shows to what extent human use reminds us of the dangers and highlights the dystopian side of all these new technologies when man appropriates or distorts them to serve his own interests. These works of anticipation, by hybridising the fictional and the real, reveal both the dystopian and the mirror aspects, allowing the viewer to engage in both a reflective and self-reflexive process.