[Knowing how to act in pandemic situations: towards a research agenda]

This research examines the dialectical relationships between the precautionary principle, the logic of prevention and prudential dynamics, based on accounts of the experiences of academics in nearly fifteen countries around the world.

The study examines the contradictory relationships generated by the perceptions of risk and urgency between the injunctions to act in accordance with the rules prescribed by the health authorities and the dynamics of self-training allowing the singular and prudent integration of rules for the maintenance of individual and collective life in a pandemic situation.

Two levels of results are characterized: concerning the method, the survey system potentially constitutes a monitoring system enabling the production of "flash surveys" giving access to the state of the epidemic situation from local relays in different countries around the world. With regard to the relationship to knowledge, the results also tend to underline the importance of in-depth educational work to develop a "culture of prudential action" in a pandemic situation.

The narrative survey implemented in the form of a "flash survey" could be duplicated in 2021 and be perpetuated in the form of a "sentinel watch" system, by questioning the concepts and actions at work in the various countries, particularly with a view to developing educational strategies to raise awareness of ecological risks and to develop knowledge of action bringing together the scales of the socialized individual and the world, through the articulation of prevention, education and ethical aims in public health.