Developing ergonomic practices: From companies to territories

The six articles published in this special section of WORK stem from a symposium held during the International Ergonomics Association (IEA) 2021 conference, titled 'Developing ergonomic practices to address sustainability issues: From companies to territories' 1. All authors are therefore concerned with sustainability and sustainable development issues. However, we have chosen to focus this section on the links between work and 'territory'. The symposium papers and the ensuing debates demonstrated the relevance of 'territory' as a scale of analysis and action, given its links with human work. Nevertheless, the conceptualization of this scale, the ways in which it should be analysed, and the forms of action associated with it are far from being stabilized and taken into account in the discipline. Let us begin with this idea of the territory as the scale of analysis and action. Ergonomics has overwhelmingly developed within companies. The analyses carried out in the discipline, just like the methods of action implemented, are to a very large extent anchored within productive organizations: their workstations, spaces, rhythms, technologies, and forms of organization. Several factors justify