Pauline GourletAssistant Professor

Pauline Gourlet is an associate professor on the INTERACT team at the i³ laboratory (CNRS). Pauline Gourlet conducts interdisciplinary research at the intersection of ergonomics, design research, and STS (science and technology studies). She studies the situated developments of digital technologies and is interested in their effects on work practices, forms of collective action, and institutional transformations. Since her postdoctoral fellowship at Sciences Po’s Médialab, she has focused more specifically on the development of artificial intelligence; at the I3 laboratory, she is currently pursuing two main lines of research related to these technologies in order to integrate analyses of digital materiality and digital uses.

1) Leading the “Chaire TerrAINs” (SHS Chair for the IDF region), she studies controversies related to digital infrastructure and the proliferation of data centers in France.

2) A second line of research focuses on changes in the nature of work across several sectors (culture, care) as well as in government agencies and public services. Building on the DIAL-IA project, in which Pauline has participated since 2024, issues related to social dialogue and workers’ involvement in technological trajectories are also central to this research track, which involves numerous stakeholders (ANACT, France Travail, labor unions).

Inspired by action-research approaches, she draws on her skills as a designer to experiment with collective inquiry methods and place participatory practices of documentation and representation at the heart of her research, with the aim of producing knowledge with and for society. As a graphic and interaction designer, Pauline founded and works with the design collective L’Atelier de Chercheurs, which has been designing digital interfaces since 2013. She earned a Ph.D. in ergonomics in 2018 from the University of Paris 8, in partnership with Ensadlab. She also served as a visiting lecturer and researcher at The New School (2017-2018) before working as Data and Innovation Lead at the United Nations (2018-2019) . Her work takes the form of publications in academic journals (Big Data and Society, Techniques & Culture, Réseaux, Sciences du design, DIS…), but also includes original creations (software [do•doc, les cahiers du studio, Corpora…], web publications, videos, maps, furniture, etc.).