Abstract
Risk analysis (RA) is at the heart of the risk management process and has been the subject of methodological, reflective or critical questions for many years. These questions challenge the foundations, practice and uses of risk analysis (Escande et al, 2016). Drawing on work in science and technology studies (STS), many authors emphasise the subjective, constructed and historically situated nature of risk analysis as opposed to a vision that would be objective and purely rational, detached from contexts. This methodological, reflective and critical knowledge is particularly important in a context of major global changes (Le Coze, 2020). In France, RA is framed by regulations which require operators to produce a safety case. The AZF accident (2001) changed the regulations (Bachelot law of 2003) integrating the probability and greater consideration of the territories and their issues through consultation mechanisms. For the past ten years or so, there have been few developments or questioning of these post-AZF developments. However, RA are confronted with new changes, this time no longer regulatory but digital and environmental. These changes tend to modify the threats, vulnerabilities, expectations and objectives of RA. The purpose of this text is to explore this new context. In the first part, critical work on RA is introduced in order to consider its limits. This clarification is followed by a presentation of initiatives that develop new perspectives on RA then by a discussion.
