Université Paris 8 Clermont-Ferrand, Auvergne, France
Abstract: We apply socio-semantic analysis tools to a corpus of abstracts and metadata of scientific articles to characterize the field of the sterile insect technique (SIT). The networks and clusters produced shed light on the specific structuration of SIT, which illustrates the perenity of disciplinary boundaries as well as their overcoming with radiobiology and engineering. A specific division of labor emerges between the subfields and in the relations between nation-states. We argue that the mixed regime of knowledge production and international anchoring relate to the operations of public relations and legitimization of the technique around the research and development programs on mosquito control.
