Évaluer l’action publique éducative à l’aune de ses principes de justice. Analyse d’une politique régionale d’orientation scolaire et professionnelle

Abstract

This article studies the operationalization of theories of social justice in a public policy evaluation procedure. It seeks to show that questioning the principles of social justice underlying public action presupposes developing appropriate methodologies. From a theoretical point of view, the procedure implemented depends on relating concepts of public policy analysis and Amartya Sen’s capability approach. This procedure led to the implementation of an innovative methodological protocol mixing quantitative and qualitative approaches. The principal results obtained highlight an unfinished territo­rialization process which does not take the intensity of the social problems and specifi­cities of the local actors’ configurations into account. They underline the weak sharing of cognitive foundations in the regional policy and the limited margin of autonomy among field operators. Lastly, they highlight the weight of behavioural expectations with respect to users of guidance policies and the existence of phenomena of failures to avail themselves of public offers.

Keywords

• capabilities
• public policy analysis
• public policy evaluation
• sociological intervention
• regional guidance policies