Governing the Animals – PAN

Our proposal is the crossroads of the sociology of professions and the sociology of public action. It consists in a co-analysis of the evolution of the veterinary profession and the public response mechanisms designed to certify animal health, both in health emergencies situations and in the long run. It proposes two new research lines:

The first is to take seriously the "veterinary public health", a prevalent notion in international forums since the 1950s. Then, our project considers a public sector specifically related to knowledge and veterinary activities.
We will not only study a certain program of action to fight against a particular animal disease, but rather analyse larger framings within which animal diseases are apprehended. To take into account its structural effects, our project adopts a diachronical approach to study the production and implementation of standards, public and private, that this concept helped to fashion in the last sixty years. This periodisation accounts for the origins and evolution of public action and the mobilization of a professional sector.

The second research line is indeed to take seriously the professional dimension of the actors involved in the governance of veterinary public health which are mostly veterinarians. This aspect will be studied through three complementary angles:
a / it is a profession and its status evolves through time, animal health being a force in its evolution.
b / veterinarians participate in designing policies on animal health, as holders of expert knowledge, as members of the public authorities producing standard, or through different lobbies, which influence French, European and International institutions.
c / The implementation of policy for animal health relies on a set of knowledge and practice of veterinary and health management, which can be challenged on the field by other occupational groups (farmers, managers, ecologists, etc.)

The project therefore analyses the emergence and implementation of public policies on animale health in the medium term. As the management of animal health depends on a multi-level governance, our fields of inquiry are mainly France, but also the European Union and international institutions which design standards applicable in France.