Des pairs aux experts: L'émergence d'un « nouveau management » de la recherche scientifique ?

Abstract

One of the many changes affecting the French public research sector has gone unnoticed: the strengthened role of new skilled experts who are helping political-administrative decision-makers and managers in their actions. This article aims to explore the role of those experts who no longer come from laboratories in the exact and natural sciences but from areas in the social, economic and management sciences, sometimes trained as engineers. These advisers, of various status, provide diagnosis, concepts and tools which are intended to increase the efficiency of public research. Despite their technically neutral appearance, their recommendations, which are frequently far from the scientific content, contribute to promoting a managerial approach to research and its organization which leads to a weakening of the autonomy of scientific professional.