Funerary composting: use of Participatory Action Research to support a social transition – F-COMPOST

This research program results from a demand arising from civil society, which claim studies focusing on funerary composting. In this funeral process process, the body of the deceased is placed on a layer of plant shavings, then covered with the same material. Due to the natural degradation by aerobic bacteria and microfauna, the whole body rapidly changed into humus. This natural process thus reflects people's desire to limit their environmental footprint and give a meaning to their own death. However, its efficacy and innocuity need to be proved before claiming or an official recognition (i.e. legalization).

Due to its trans-disciplinary and inherent complexity, this question currently falls within the domain of undone science. Indeed, the involvement of a multitude of stakeholders from research, civil society, professionals and health agencies is required. Even limiting the issue to scientific questions, knowledge about funeral composting is scattered across an interdisciplinary spectrum ranging from funerary anthropology to ecology and from science to practical experience (the know-how of master composters). There is therefore no simple nor intuitive solution to answer such a question. Our approach is based on collective intelligence and focus on a main goal: testing funeral composting procedures under real field conditions (i.e. experimentation). For this purpose, we have built a transdisciplinary approach involving all the stakeholders combining experimental biology, mortuary anthropology and archaeology.

Our program is structured around four main tasks: 1/ a collaborative analysis of the evolution of mortuary practices and sanitary threat (anthropological perspective) to define the scientific/technical issues involved in funerary composting (co-design) 2/ the creation of experimental facilities 3/ the co-construction of funerary composting protocols, which will then be implemented to collect data and collectively validate their effectiveness (co-realization) 4/ the creation of scientific content (publications) as well as useful documents, i.e. short technical notes for decision-makers (legislative change) and association members. We also propose a more reflexive approach on undone science and Participatory Action Research. So, despite the risk-taking and breakthrough positioning, this project offers clear guarantees in terms of knowledge production, as well as the assurance of a strong societal impact.