Contenu du sommaire : Sciences sociales, expertise et consultance

The social sciences, ever since they were constituted as «sciences », have had social functions which, for some of them, are akin to consultancy. This is why the possible threat that such consultancy might represent for the social sciences does not appear either as something new or as something external to these sciences. The critical aspect of the social sciences is jeopardised not only from outside, but in part also, from within the social sciences themselves which from the start, have been divided between more or less «critical » and more or less «consensual » approaches.

The topic of this article lies within the framework of research on the evolution of the French education system in response to various aspects of industrialization. Readers will be offered an overview of the chief changes brought about by closer contacts between firms and the university (changes of objectives or structures, for instance). The author eventually tries to come back to the nature of the language interplay that characterizes the conditions of postmodernity according to J.F. Lyotard, with a view to breaking new ground for more research in the field.

The scientific validity of social expert evaluation presents some problems : because social science is insufficiently distanced from its object, it cannot claim perfect epistemological parity with natural science ; industrial relations expert evaluation has a tendency to consist simply of a sort of technocratic regulation of labour relations. The second part of this article will study these hypotheses by analysing practices of experts in business communication : having recourse to specialized, scientific knowledge appears as a means of justifying managerial power behind the mask of the illusion of rational, instrumental control of labour relations.

This article shows how around the political discourse of the state an expert economic rhetoric was originally elaborated under a statistical form. Statistics enable through the large numbers law to objectivize the future while giving the expert discourse a mythical or augural sense. At the same time, this rhetoric is looking for its authority in an economic science, particularly over the short period 1945-1973. The analysis of the French economic policy discourse suggests that this discourse -torn between disturbing «stylized facts » and the denial of science -must, beyond the market theory, look for other reassuring notions.

In the Oloron St Marie basin (an outlying area located in South Western France), a local industrial system (network) still in embryo is being tentatively initiated around the assembly line of landing gear for heavy aircraft of the Messier-Bugatti group. It is made up of a number of subcontractors in metalworks all working, chiefly or partly, for the Messier works located in Bidos (just outside Oloron). The following study illustrates an experiment in participating assessment which has been conducted by several academics at the request of DATAR, of the Urban Planning Authority and the Oloron council. It puts forward some ideas likely to energize local development in the outlying areas of this country. Two methodological frameworks are tested : local industrial systems and socio-spatial formation.

The evaluation of local policies is an activity at a cross-roads where operational and scientific domains meet. In conciliating these two approaches, French politico-administrative elites and researchers from the social sciences today find themselves confronted with four trends which structure this article : relative decline in the importance of corporatist references in the French central administration, a context of local politics where the greater accent is on contractualisation, where evaluation as a discipline is in the process of evolving from a relatively formalized model of action (aid for decision-makers) towards a more participative yet fragile model (the role of intermediary or «companion »), a university milieu in search of new ways of involving itself in society. This text is an attempt to go beyond a straightforward inventory by outlining several ideas as to how one might better use evaluation as a means of bringing together actors, experts and decision-makers involved in the dynamics of local politics.

The connections between scientifical research and political practice have been described by Jurgen Habermas using three patterns that the authors adapt, in this article, to the analysis of sociological valuation research as requested by the institutional orders. Indeed, three principal systems appear to represent these connections : the first, one of technocratic coalescence, in which the expert guarantees scientifically the enactment of political-administrative standards. The second, one of disjunction in which the refusal to take part in the research of valuation joins Habermas' s decisionist standard. The third, one of pragmatic proceedings, of which some experience allows to think that they may open up public scenes of action which are more democratic.

Experts are playing an increasing part within companies. This is also true for information experts. The functions of consultants, advisers and experts, are of several types : a methodological function, to reor ganize car develop a department (it provides a transfer of information, knowledge and know-how) ; an advisory function to validate scientific or technical information, which is performed at the strategic level. And activities of subcontractors, in certain cases. All this indicates a sector under structuration.

In the area of AIDS prevention we need a new expertise built around the information and communication sciences ; especially when these sciences treat of social vectors in specific social age groups. This expert evaluation is interested in collective and singular forms of appropriation of biomedical knowledge on AIDS and works at the dissemination of this knowledge by way of a cultural mediator or a cultural melting pot. Cultural dissemination of knowledge is a necessary way of encouraging preventative behaviour as it can supplement the present lack of information in this field. This information should not be in the form of a mortal warning, but on the contrary should emphasize the «vital desire » especially when addressing young people who are building emotional ties. So it is imperative to adopt connotations which ensure that the cultural dimensions in the scientific knowledge of AIDS are integrated by social network mediar tors.

The intervention in the firm of the researcher in the social and human sciences, presents methodological and relational difficulties which need to be treated with great vigilance. The «identity audit » proposed in this article is the fruit of such research. It is a new tool to complete the list of classical audits. Based on social representations analysis, it allows us to obtain an internal image of the organization which is very interesting because employees behavior is conditioned by it.