Lille 2 University

Lille 2 University team

Dr Thomas ALAM

CERAPS, Lille Center for Politics and Administration

Lille 2 University

Academic training

• Degree and master's degree in political science from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques (Lille)
• PhD in political science from the University of Lille 2

Research interests

• Sociology of national and international public policies
• Sociology of risk, of crises and of scientific expertise
• Comparative Public Policies
• The new managerial reform of European States (agencification, performance indicators and public private partnerships)

Memberships

• Co-scientific coordinator of a research project funded by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (La gestion territorialisée des risques et des crises sanitaires ; 2005-2007)
• Coordinator with Jérémie Nollet of a research seminar on risk hosted by CERAPs between 2004 and 2006 (L'administration du risque)
• Member of a research project within INRETS on the social disparities of road risks (2008)

Publications

• « Crises, acteurs politiques et changement institutionnel: un nouveau système de gestion des risques alimentaires en Grande-Bretagne? », Revue Internationale de Politique Comparée, vol. 10, n°2, 2003, p. 219-231.
• « Le rôle de l'expertise scientifique sur les ESST dans le processus d'action publique. Une comparaison franco-britannique », in L. Dumoulin, S. La Branche, C. Robert, P. Warin (dir.), Le recours aux experts. Raisons et usages politiques, Grenoble, Presses Universitaires de Grenoble, 2004, p. 83-101.
• « The Managerial Eye: Remarks on the Relevance of Sociology in Understanding the Complexity of Crisis Situations », International Journal of Emergency Management, vol. 3, n°1, 2006, p. 12-20 (avec Jérémie Nollet).
• « Réformes sectorielles et monstration de la modernité. Les usages des savoirs managériaux dans les politiques de l'emploi et de l'alimentaire », Politix, vol. 20, n°79, 2007, p. 77-100 (avec Jérôme Godard).
• « La vache folle et les vétérinaires. Récit d'une victoire inattendue et paradoxale sur le terrain de la sécurité sanitaire des aliments », Revue d'Études en Agriculture et Environnement, (to be published, 2009).
  
  

Relevant websites

Ceraps

His Career:

Dr Thomas Alam holds a degree and a master's degree in political science from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques (Lille) as well as a PdD in political science from the University of Lille 2. In November 2007, he successfully defended his dissertation When the Mad Cow Finds its Field Back. A Transnational Comparison of the Re-Ordering of a Policy Sector with very high honours and jury's applause. His study was jointly financed by the Agence de l'Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l'Energie and the Regional Council of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais. In addition, Thomas Alam was awarded a Chevening Scholarship from the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office and was hosted by the University of Manchester in 2001 and 2002.
To put it shortly, the doctoral research was an opportunity to study how the political and administrative settings in charge of food risks regulation had changed (and claimed to have changed) in France and Britain following the 1996 BSE crisis. It was an also an opportunity to study the international circulation of symbolic goods associated to the New Public Management and/or Good Risk Governance. Imported into domestic spaces by international brokers, such foreign references are weapons as well as issues of national sectoral struggles. As such, their translation are significantly filtered by the singularities of the domestic space, hence the observation of a partial convergence between the French and British policy sectors.
Besides his PhD dissertation, T. Alam was actively involved in various collective projects: he was one of the scientific coordinator of a research project funded by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (La gestion territorialisée des risques et des crises sanitaires ; 2005-2007), organised with Jérémie Nollet a research seminar on risk hosted by CERAPs between 2004 and 2006 (L'administration du risque), and was a member of a research project within INRETS on the social disparities of road risks (2008).
His areas of expertise include the Sociology of national and international public policies; the Sociology of risk, of crises and of scientific expertise ; Comparative Public Policies ; the new managerial reform of European States (agencification, performance indicators and public private partnerships).

_{The CERAPS scientific project for the coming years is implemented by six research teams working on issues affecting the contemporary political order at various levels :}

• _{The building of a European legal and political space}
• _{The territorialisation of public policies}
• _{The structuring of the political offer}
• _{Sociology of collective action and sociology of political engagement}
• _{Institutionnalisation and codification of Sustainable Development}
• _{The new forms and practices of democracy}