Conclusion

This contribution has laid the foundations for the context and objectives common to the role of "tiers-veilleur", by situating it first in its institutional emergence sites, and then at a more individual level, through specific issues of professionalization. The concept of the "tiers-veilleur" (third-party watchdog), nurtured by the work of Sciences Citoyennes, is taking root in an environment where support for participation is becoming increasingly structured, with the growth of a market for participatory democracy, the opening of specialized academic units and the structuring of networks. The profession as such sometimes refers to intermediation practices, sometimes to those of engineering, depending on whether the aim is to bring researchers and laypersons together or to organize a reasoning process. It draws on multi-disciplinary skills, often marked by the imprint of the human and...