La communication comme vecteur de l'acceptabilité sociale des grands projets

Abstract

While in the seventies, major projects such as waste or nuclear facilities followed a top-down approach according to which promoters lead the whole works on a hierarchical mode, nowadays, the social context in which promoters have to develop their project is characterized by stakeholders’ involvement throughout the project’s development, from its very conception to its usage. Consequently, public acceptance of major projects has become an essential condition to their success. In order to better understand the context in which the acceptability is tested and co-constructed by promoter and social actors at each phase of the projects, this article proposes an analytical framework based on stakeholders’ expectations. Communication modes associated with these projects, being those put forward by the promoters or by the stakeholders themselves, can be analyzed in light of those expectations, from which arise different types of legitimacy. Starting from a theoretical perspective, we exemplify our development with reference to several cases of major projects that were discussed in Quebec over the last few years.