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The article introduces the special issue on “passeurs”. It examines whether, in diverse spatial and temporal configurations, a common sociological figure emerges in the transfer of ideas, norms and public policies: the passeurs. Passeurs are actors who work on transfer processes. Yet, the status or vocation of these actors is not specifically related to their transfer activities. Passeurs have three characteristic features that distinguish them from brokers: they are both intermediaries and producers, or intermediaries and receivers of norms; their activity implies investing in a new social role; and they are often secondary actors in the social fields in which they operate. Through contributions from research in international sociology and research in the sociology of public action, our dossier proposes a first analysis of the categories of passeurs into three pairs of opposition: passeurs of conviction vs. professional passeurs; internal passeurs vs. external passeurs; single-positioned passeurs vs. multipositioned passseurs.