Issue |
Natures Sciences Sociétés
Volume 16, Number 1, Janvier-Mars 2008
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 36 - 40 | |
Section | Forum | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/nss:2008021 | |
Published online | 17 June 2008 |
Quand l'incertitude vient du passé: du principe de précaution au principe de présomption
Note sur une recherche en cours
When uncertainty comes from the past: from the precautionary principle to the presumption principle
Sociologue, Centre de sociologie de l'innovation
(CNRS-ENSMP), École des mines de Paris, 60 boulevard Saint-Michel,
75006 Paris, France
Auteur de correspondance : yannick.barthe@ensmp.fr
La sociologie des risques s'est beaucoup intéressée aux situations d'incertitude liées à des dommages futurs. Mais il existe des situations où l'incertitude vient plutôt du passé, en particulier lorsqu'il s'agit d'établir un lien de causalité entre certaines pathologies et une exposition à un risque ayant eu lieu plusieurs dizaines d'années auparavant. À partir de l'exemple de la mobilisation des vétérans des essais nucléaires français, cet article cherche à caractériser ces situations d'incertitude liées au passé. Il montre que l'un des enjeux des controverses engendrées par ce genre de situation est l'application d'un principe analogue au principe de précaution, mais tourné vers le passé: le principe de présomption.
Abstract
The sociology of collective risks has undergone an important renewal for the past fifteen years. Differing from approaches which considered the perception of risks, the most innovating works in this field have regarded collective risks according to a larger point of view: that of public problems whose emergence, framework and institutional treatment need to be questioned. These works notably attempted to analyze the changes induced by the acknowledgement of the scientific uncertainties regarding certain future threats. But uncertainty can come from the past too. It is the case when a latent period make a causal association between a risk exposure and a disease very difficult to establish. The example of French “atomic veterans”, who raise today the question of health impact of nuclear testing, is taken to analyse the situations of uncertainty associated to the past. The paper shows that in this kind of situation, one of the main issue of the controversy lies on the application of a principle which looks like the precautionary principle but which is turned towards the past: the presumption principle.
Mots clés : risque / incertitude / essais / nucléaires / présomption victimes
Key words: risk / uncertainty / nuclear testing / presumption / victims
© NSS Dialogues, EDP Sciences, 2008
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