Study of collective choices process in an uncertain and controversial universe: The case of a long-term management method choice for highly radioactive waste in France

For the past ten years or so, the implementation of major projects of general interest (LGV, dam, airport, radioactive waste storage center) has faced a risk of a new kind of contestation. The Large Useless and Imposed Projects movement manages to federate environmentalist and anti-globalization oppositions in order to question the definition of the general interest or public utility carried by the contested projects. Far from being just an obstacle to public decision-making, they question how stable and coherent collective choices can be formed based on a necessarily evolving and contingent definition of the general interest. To answer this question, we rely on the study of a conflictual case which has for more than 30 years been opposed by promoters and opponents to a project for an industrial center for the storage of French highly radioactive waste. This case will be studied using a theoretical reading grid which mainly mobilizes the work of Francois Perroux on power and information. In fine, we show that collective choices are the net result of information power relations between groups of unequal agents who evolve within a constantly evolving social system. (author)