Institutionalising "the Openess of Scientific Expertise to Society" : A French Case Study

My paper concerns the “openness of scientific expertise to society” and its institutionalisation in France. For instance, 5 public expert agencies adopted a charter on the social representativeness of expertise in 2011. The French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES), which is one of the 5, has involved environmental organisations, professional bodies and trade unions in risk assessment since its creation in 2010. The stakeholders contribute to define the Agency’s strategic guidelines in thematic steering committees and they are consulted throughout the expertise process. Then, I will examine the motives of this openness and how it improve the robustness of risk assessment. I will illustrate my presentation with ethnographic observations and interviews that I am carrying out for my postdoctoral work.