Éléments sur l’acceptabilité socio-technique d’une politique environnementale : le cas de la restauration de la continuité écologique des cours d’eau

Abstract

The argument of this paper is that the notion of social acceptability, often invoked in development and environmental management projects, is incomplete. Thinking in terms of social acceptability does not address scientific and technical issues. Sciences and technology play an important role in implementation of environmental projects and could be a point of contention. We rely on results of a research about the implementation of a French policy named the continuity of river. To put the policy into practice, the removal or adjustment of hydraulic works that obstruct river continuity is privileged. Efforts to restore or establish river continuity have been met with problems, including the opposition of hydraulic owners and local residents, which have given rise to disagreements. There has been much debate about the scientific validity of the policy itself and the effectiveness of removing hydraulic structures. Nevertheless, public actors have tried to respond only in terms of achieving social acceptability, while ignoring the more technical problems. In identifying the socio-technical dimensions of the implementation of river continuity, we propose a way of thinking which can be convincing to the actors in order to take into account of all dimensions of this public policy.

Keywords

• expertise
• water
• acceptability
• disagreement
• river continuity
• sciences