Jean Louis Genard

Multi-criteria decision-aid in a philosophical perspective

In this essay we explore an avenue of reflection on the epistemological status of models and of recommendations deriving from a decision-aid process conceived in a constructivist perspective. After a brief presentation of a philosophical framework, that of Habermas’s theory of orders of validity, which enables us to talk of the “true” and the “good” by defining procedural-type criteria of validity, we attempt to situate decision-aid within this philosophical perspective.

Capacities, Expertise, Empowerment – Rethinking the Anthropology of Participation

Abstract Often studied in the context of political developments and the alleged shift from representative democracy to participatory democracy, participation is discussed here in terms of changes in our anthropological coordinates. The exigencies and expectations of participation are found in many areas that go beyond the political sphere, extending from the business world and its quality circles to the production of self-assembly kits calling for the buyer’s assembly skills. This extension of the field of participation is based on a certain number of anthropological presuppositions which ascribe to actors the capacities and competencies they are supposed to have, unless they are invited to enhance them through empowerment strategies in the event that they are failing or insufficient. This paper argues that evaluating people and the configuration of many recent social mechanisms tend increasingly to adjust to this new anthropological paradigm. Such is the case for political participation, new social policies, empowerment training, educational objectives, and development and health policies. Returning more specifically to political participation, the paper shows how these new anthropological coordinates reconfigure by redrawing the division between ordinary and specialized expertise and, in this way, the balance between spaces in which participatory democracy can take place and those that remain confined to technocratic expertise.

Employment policy confronted with new patterns of governance centred on coordination and performance

At both the global and local levels, employment policy currently constitutes one of the major issues confronted by governments faced with economic crises and globalization. The success of these policies depends, in particular, on their ability to link together initiatives undertaken not only at different levels of power, but also within a single level between multiple actors that (more or less) have prerogatives in matters of employment policy. This domain of public policy constitutes a unique space in which to analyse the developments and circulation of principles promoted by advocates of two new patterns of governance: New Public Management and the Open Method of Coordination. On the basis of a qualitative analysis conducted with employment policy actors in the Brussels-Capital Region (BCR), this article studies the difficulties these actors come up against when faced with the implementation expectations of new managerial demands, as well as coordination demands that force an increasingly flexible economic landscape and an increasingly complex institutional landscape onto these actors. Enumerating the difficulties encountered, the article also updates the strategies put into place by the actors themselves to address the often severe diagnoses that are made of the situations to which they are subject. This article also constitutes a contribution to the clarification of both the favourable and undesirable conditions for the establishment of new forms of governance within public policy. Points for practitioners In most countries, employment policies figure among the highest priorities. When new initiatives in this sector need to be elaborated and implemented, practitioners attempt to balance a wide variety of opinions, focusing on the coherence of their decisions and actions. In the context of performance management, practitioners are also required to demonstrate the success of their public interventions. In Europe, these expectations are exacerbated by the requirements of the Open Method of Coordination and New Public Management. The appropriation of these two patterns of governance depends on a given practitioner’s receptivity regarding the perceived utility of these patterns to their particular work.

Les exigences et antinomies éthiques des nouvelles politiques publiques en matière de santé mentale

Comprendre les nouvelles politiques publiques de sante mentale ainsi que les exigences et antinomies ethiques qui les animent exige d’abord de retracer le cadre historique dans lequel l’action publique de la modernite therapeutique s’est deroulee. De l’Etat liberal a l’Etat reseau en passant par l’Etat social, les mutations des politiques de sante mentale sont etroitement liees a la critique des institutions asilaires et hospitalieres ainsi qu’aux transformations des formes de subjectivation. A cet egard, et de maniere inedite dans l’histoire du champ de la sante mentale, les nouvelles politiques publiques traduisent de nombreuses intuitions ethiques. Mais egalement des antinomies ethiques qu’une action publique responsable ne peut se permettre d’ignorer. En pointant du doigt ces antinomies, c’est la problematique de l’allocation des ressources de sante mentale qui est ici interrogee.