Paper short abstract:

By taking up the challenge of a reflective and critical perspective, this paper seeks to examine the issue of confrontation between the methodological requirements of the discipline and the pragmatic ones imposed by the terrain or the "sponsors" of its intervention and adjustments induced.

Paper long abstract:

The current Ebola outbreak in West Africa left its mark on people's minds because of its incidence and lethality, and its occurrence over a long period of time. But what caught the attention of people is also an important mobilization of social science experts in the intervention teams. These actors were mobilized because of difficulties in having interactions between medical teams and populations to meet the community support and mediation demand. This operational request comes in addition to the usual search function. However, conducting research in health emergency poses a set of challenges, given the difficulties related either to the nature of the object under study or to the context of medical, social and emotional risks. Moreover, the immediate application needs of anthropological knowledge require quick response which refers to a short epidemiological time which differs from the long anthropological time.

By taking up the challenge of a reflective and critical perspective, this paper seeks to examine the issue of confrontation between the methodological requirements of the discipline and the pragmatic ones imposed by the terrain or the "sponsors" of its intervention and adjustments induced. To what extent do these conciliations have implications for canonical objects of social science methodology? Under what conditions is it possible to produce a scientific knowledge in a health emergency context? In addition, this paper also discusses the relationships between anthropology and medicine and examines the issue of co-disciplinarity in the field of health emergency.