Biotechnology policy : Can France move from centralized decision-making to citizen's gouvernance ?

International audienceIn a traditionally technocratic country such as France, the development of the life sciences has provoked a number of new questions both about the consequences of scientific research and about the ways of regulating it. Risks are no longer only material, they are perceived as ethical and social, and citizens are no longer ready to had over their control to technical experts. In the present paper we shall discuss this evolution, based on interview and focus group material collected over the past six years in France