Olivier Borraz

France: the intermunicipal revolution

A broad-ranging assessment of continuities and change in local governance in the western industrialized world providing in-depth assessments by leading experts of a wide range of countries exemplifying between them the whole spectrum of types and models of local government systems and networks. A central focus is on the impact of public management reforms, new forms of community governance and changes in central-local relations. (From the editor)

Risk and Public Problems

The study of risk in the French social sciences over the past 10 years draws upon a tradition of policy studies. Following an earlier period during which research focused on major catastrophes and technological risks, studies moved on to a broader range of collective risks. Emphasis was placed on the social construction of risks by social movements, NGOs, experts and counter‐experts, whistleblowers, private firms and public administrations. Among these studies, two separate approaches can be observed. A first strand of research focused on how existing risks became public problems, i.e., why and how among the many risks which surround us, some became major issues while others did not. This led to specific interest for processes of problem‐building and agenda‐setting. In these processes, the role of organizations was closely scrutinized. A second strand of research focused on how existing public problems became framed as risks, i.e., the way in which an issue already on the agenda came to acquire new attributes which, by stressing a number of uncertainties and establishing links with other controversial issues, turned it into a risk. From the sum results of these two strands, a general framework of analysis for the study of risks emerges, which stresses the dynamic nature of their construction processes, the political nature of the controversies which accompany risks on the public agenda, the dimensions of lack of familiarity and control in the risks that emerge, and the crucial importance of debates over calculating the risks.

From risk to the government of uncertainty: the case of mobile telephony

Confronted with complex and wicked issues, public authorities turn to science and expertise to provide answers that will help reduce the level of uncertainty that characterizes these issues. Yet, the paper argues that more often than not, it is the application of a risk framework to a given issue that fosters uncertainty, not the other way round. Hence, the more authorities and experts attempt to apply a risk approach to an issue, the more they encourage the production of uncertainty. Taking mobile telephony as a case in point, the paper then goes on to show that to reduce uncertainties, authorities in some countries have recently experimented with new forms of knowledge in the process of expertise; paradoxically, this may raise in a first moment the general level of uncertainty, but it may also provide in the longer term more robust knowledge. The larger aim of the paper is to expand conceptions of uncertainty commonly used in risk governance.

Réguler ou qualifier ? Le cas des boues d'épuration urbaines

Resume A partir de l’exemple des boues d’epuration urbaines recyclees en agriculture, l’article analyse les recompositions de l’activite agricole. L’histoire des boues urbaines, vulnerables par nature a toute sorte d’amalgames et de mobilisations, illustre l’impact des controverses qui entourent la profession agricole, la pregnance de nouveaux themes a travers lesquels ses pratiques sont saisies ou la remise en cause du modele francais de la cogestion. De nouveaux modes de regulation apparaissent. Ils operent en dehors des pouvoirs publics et en complement des activites reglementaires, soit en ancrant la production et l’elimination des boues dans un territoire par des procedures qualite, soit en traitant les boues comme un intrant dans la chaine alimentaire. – Numero special : Agriculture et alimentation .

O surgimento das questões de risco

Este artigo apresenta um modelo geral que explica o surgimento, a avaliacao e o tratamento das questoes do risco. Esse modelo salienta a natureza politica e controversa do processo e foca-se na nocao de incerteza como uma caracteristica fundamental de qualquer questao de risco. O artigo sugere, ainda, algumas razoes sociologicas de preocupacao, que podem auxiliar na compreensao dos motivos subjacentes as controversias sobre o risco e seus impactos politicos.

From the ‘neurotic’ to the ‘rationalising’ state: Risk and the limits of governance

During New Labour’s third term in office in the UK, risk-based regulation and management came to form a major plank of public policy. In 2005, the then Prime Minister Tony Blair argued in a well-publicised speech that there was enormous pressure on decision-makers ‘to act to eliminate risk in a way that is out of all proportion to the potential damage’ and called for a ‘sensible debate about risk in public policymaking’ (Blair, 2005). ‘Something is seriously awry’, he argued, where ‘…health and safety rules across a range of areas is taken to extremes’, and when the Financial Services Authority is ‘seen as hugely inhibiting of efficient business by perfectly respectable companies that have never defrauded anyone’. Arguing that we need to ‘replace the compensation culture with a common-sense culture’, the prime minister committed the government to ensuring regulatory action is ‘risk based’ to help ensure that creativity in the private and public sectors is not stifled by overly risk-averse cultures.

A Sociological Checklist for Assessing Environmental Health Risks

The contribution of social sciences to risk assessment has often been confined to dimensions of risk perception and communication. This article relates an effort to promote knowledge from the social sciences that addresses other dimensions of risk issues. A sociological checklist produced for ANSES in France helps to identify and analyse social dimensions that should be given attention during the process of risk assessment.

Risk Studies: The French Contribution

Since the late 1980s risks have been at the centre of numerous debates in France, as in many other countries. This phenomenon is related to the growth of environmental issues, accompanied by a mounting awareness of the vulnerability of our societies and of the ambivalent role of science and technology as a source of progress but also of new risks (Fabiani and Theys, 1987). More recently, a series of health crises and scandals has further heightened consciousness in this respect. In this context, the issue of risk is crucial since it raises questions on the constitution of our societies: the role of the state which protects but simultaneously restricts freedoms; the evolving relations between knowledge and power; new forms in the legitimization of action; society’s relationship with its own development, and so on. Hence, as in many countries, French researchers’ interest in risks stems from a feeling, shared by many, that risks are one of the perspectives from which society producing itself can be observed. Like Ulrich Beck, with his ‘‘risk society’’ thesis, François Ewald sees in the current period a new political regime, the ‘‘state of precaution’’, in which risk plays a role in the development of a new governmentality (Ewald, 2005). The ‘‘new risks’’ of the state of precaution (Godard et al., 2003) are complex and systemic, fraught with uncertainties, objects of controversial knowledge. Their very definition is the subject of debates, and they lend themselves to phenomena of publicization and politicization. The new governmentality is therefore marked by an increasingly frequent use of scientific expertise, which is a strategic political resource for many actors in the regulation of risks.