Replicating participatory devices: the consensus conference confronts nanotechnology

Describes two examples (in France and in the US) of replication of the Danish procedure of the consensus conference for public participation in nanotechnology, and argues that emphasis on the evaluation of the participatory procedure should not be made at the expense of richer analysis of the problematisation of public participation fostered by such policy instruments.Science and technology studies, public participation, consensus conferences, democracy, controversies, political sociology, nanotechnology, France