Analyser politique et savoir en action. Éclairages à partir du cas de la couverture de l’A6b

This paper tackles the issue of the relation between norm and action in the field of urbanism, by using a pragmatic analysis of local policies. Norm here means a rule that actors are supposed to comply with, whether because it is prescriptive or because it refers to a dominant social value. Rather than assessing the way in which the norms are implemented or the effects they may produce, the purpose is to produce a reflexive analysis of their transformations through the public action making process. More specifically, we propose to adapt Jean Reynaud’s (1989) theory of social regulation to the analysis of what I call “territorial public regulation”, that is the process in which public actors of different levels are confronting their own rules and finally mutually adjust on shared rules. This approach is applied to the case of the covering of the A6 motorway, which is characterized by conflicting technical, environmental and social issues. While it proves relevant in understanding how public problems are formulated and conflicts are solved in specific local contexts, it raises the question of its critical scope and how to take account of uneven balance of power between the different stakeholders.