Nicolas Dechy Thesis defense

Lessons learned from industrial accidents are a source of knowledge about organizational failures.  However, their use by risk managers and regulators is not given and depends on the situation. This research focuses on the process of mobilizing this knowledge in the context of expert work in nuclear safety management. Two specific situations in which organizational and human factors experts implement practices are analyzed. When defining an appraisal, the scope, appraisal objects and assessment themes are selected. During the analysis, the assessment of safety management is based on an organizational diagnosis of risk control. Some organizational theories consider organizations as processes (organizing). The mobilization of knowledge is then approached as a process ("knowing"), rather than as a stock or commodity, which is constructed within a situated activity. The activity of knowing emerges from the relationships woven between elements of knowledge and the work of risk assessment. Approached within the theoretical framework of "riskwork", the social construction of attention to some uncertainties, their translation into the language of risk, and expert judgments on risk control depend on artifacts, values, evidence and doubts that are debated and negotiated. Beyond the cognitive function of narratives and reading grids, behavioral and political functions emerge from these uses