Les qualités politiques des technologies. Irréversibilité et réversibilité dans la gestion des déchets nucléaires

• Main Author: Yannick Barthe
• Format: Article
• Language: fra
• Published: ENS Éditions 2009-05-01
• Series: Tracés
• Subjects: decision; irreversibility; nuclear waste; technical democracy; uncertainty
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/traces/2563

Even if it is now acknowledged that techniques are not neutral, few works precisely describe the political properties of these techniques. Based on the example of nuclear waste storage, this paper develops a political sociology of technical devices. The purpose is to clarify the different definitions of political decision that these devices embody. Analysing three possible solutions for the management of nuclear waste, we can distinguish three models of decision in situations of scientific uncertainty. The author shows that it is through this kind of clarification of the political qualities of technologies that social sciences can contribute to the discussion of choices in these matters.