The rise of a "participatory imperative" is tending to renew public action and open up the decision-making system to all stakeholders. Users are therefore invited to get involved in order to broaden the range of knowledge that can be mobilized and to take their points of view into account on the basis of their user expertise. Aiming to understand this renewal and define the place and role played by users within these participatory bodies, we have built this thesis around the figure of a "competent user." In other words, an actor capable of co-producing public action and sharing their user knowledge.
Our analysis of two participatory mechanisms, borrowed from the field of urban transport, first enabled us to highlight the concrete impacts of user participation on the solutions and orientations chosen for the project under discussion. We then examined these approaches in light of the principles of collective design used in the fields of industrial engineering and management sciences. Finally, we showed that in order to establish collective public action based on the development of user expertise, three conditions must be met: legitimization, formalization, and implementation.
Thesis defended on January 25, 2012
Keywords:
participation, user, expertise, urban transportation,
Doctoral school:
City, Transportation, and Territories