Abstract

Attesting the sharing of an olfactory experience by several individuals is a challenge, due to theoretical and methodological obstacles often presented as irreducible. After a brief discussion of the reality of this irreducibility, we try to overcome some of these obstacles by distinguishing between odorous spaces and olfactory spaces. If an odorous space can be objectified and thus shared, it is not the same for an olfactory space which is a subjective experience. However, the invasive effect of odorant molecules, more specifically those that cause "bad smells", is likely to attenuate this subjectivity and, at the same time, to facilitate the sharing of an olfactory space. Our argument is based on ethnographic surveys conducted in Brazil, China and India and on a research conducted in geography on the spatialization of olfactory nuisances.

> complete article in French : here