"European Objects: harmonisation through science and the market"

Please note: only the introduction is in French, the rest (from 1:30) is in English. 

12 December 2023 session of the CEE General Seminar series. 
Speaker: Brice Laurent, Research Fellow, Center for the Sociology of Innovation, Mines ParisTech.
Chair: Charlotte Halpern, FNSP Research Fellow, Sciences Po, CEE.
Discussant: Takuya Onoda, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow, Sciences Po, CEE.

Many European regulatory initiatives are based on actions on and by technical objects. An empirical approach based on European objects enables us to grasp the manifestations of European harmonisation, but also to identify the tensions between references to science and the market, which are seen as outside politics, on the one hand, and technical-regulatory practices that combine scientific examination and negotiations between the players concerned, on the other. Based on a recent book (European Objects: The troubled dreams of harmonisation), the presentation discussed the value of studying European objects for problematising harmonisation, but also for developing critical resources for thinking about European democratic weaknesses.

Brice Laurent is a researcher at the Center for the Sociology of Innovation, Mines ParisTech, and director of the Social Sciences, Economy and Society Department of the French National Agency for Environmental, Food and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES). His research interests focus on the relationship between science and democracy, in sites where innovation is promoted, regulated or contested. His books include Les politiques des nanotechnologies (ECLM, 2010), Democratic Experiments (MIT Press, 2017) and European Objects (MIT Press, 2022). His current works include investigations of experimental forms of innovation as well as research projects about the politics of subsurface resources. At ANSES, the department that Brice Laurent leads coordinates the agency’s expertise in the social sciences and is in charge of dialogue with stakeholders.

His latest book is available open acces from MIT Press: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262543330/european-objects/

European Objects: harmonisation through science and the market - Brice Laurent

The Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics (Sciences Po & CNRS) is a multidisciplinary laboratory dedicated to comparative political analysis.
https://www.sciencespo.fr/centre-etudes-europeennes/en.html

European Objects: harmonisation through science and the market - Brice Laurent

Sciences Po CEE