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The Growing Engagement of Emergent Concerned Groups in Political and Economic Life

Lessons from the French Association of Neuromuscular Disease Patients

Ecole des Mines de Paris, michel.callon{at}ensmp.fr

Vololona Rabeharisoa

Ecole des Mines de Paris

This article discusses the notion of emergent concerned groups and explores how these groups contribute to shaping the relations between technoscience, politics, and economic markets. The first part presents the case of the French Association of patients suffering from muscular dystrophies. This history suggests that under certain conditions, emergent concerned groups are able to impose a new form of articulation between scientific research and political identities by directly linking the issues of research content and results to that of their place in the collective. The second part argues that the evolution of economic markets, combined with that of science and technology, leads to a multiplication of those emergent concerned groups. The study of the conditions under which these emergent groups become legitimate stakeholders as well as the analysis of their impact on market organization and technoscientific institutions are key research topics for the near future.

Key Words: patient organizations • emergent concerned groups • economic markets • social movements

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