Les enjeux sémantiques et temporels du risque à l’heure du développement durable

Abstract

This article focuses on the processes of formulation and qualification of risks associated with the post-mining management of uranium. The approach is based on both a semantic analysis and a sociology of controversies. Indeed, taking the definition of a public problem as the result of a sociopolitical controversy and a discursive process helps to better understand the issues at stake. While the nuclear debate tends to be reduced to an opposition between the “pros” and “cons”, the semantic analysis brings to light a greater diversity of points of view, which appears to be related to the objectives and the roles of the actors involved in the controversy. In other words, it reveals a much more differentiated qualification of the problem and a definition of the risks far from being homogeneous. Thus, it highlights how difficult it is for stakeholders to agree on a single definition and management of the environmental risk for territories.

Keywords

• discourse
• risk
• uranium
• qualification
• public problem