79

This paper aims at explaining the success of the notion of governance in the field of public action, among researchers as well as civil servants and elected representatives. After drawing up the uses of this concept in this particular sphere, it shows that, as far as the professionals are concerned, this success stems from the light it sheds on the new practices of coordination without hierarchy, but also from the veil it throws on asymmetric participation and power. As for researchers, they value the concept because of its declination properties and because it could become a medium liable to constitute a typology of public action’s organizational forms.