Expertise and Participation in the French Nuclear Industry

Since the early 1960s, the French nuclear industry is marked by a structural dichotomy between experts and the general public. Even though citizens secured themselves a place in the decision making process, their scope of action is limited and linked to a discursively framed lay identity. The study focuses on the operationalisation of the lay terminology by the actors of the French nuclear debate. We focus our analysis on two groups of actors: 1) governmental and pro-nuclear organisations and 2) nongovernmental and anti-nuclear organisations. Our aim is to analyze the real-time implications of a discursive regime of participation on the public engagement in science.