Olivier Borraz

After studying municipal government, Olivier Borraz has been conducting research in the field of risk and, more recently, crises for over 20 years.
He initially focused on risk governance in environmental health, both from the perspective of controversies and mobilization, and by studying the production of knowledge and expertise, the role of independent agencies, decision-making processes, and the actions of private actors.
His work then shifted to risk governance, in other words, the introduction and use of risk instruments within the administration in various areas of public policy, using a comparative European approach.
More recently, his research has turned to how the state organizes itself and prepares to manage crises of all kinds, and then actually manages them when they occur, with studies in the fields of nuclear power generation (AGORAS project), volcanic alerts (V-Care project), pandemics (CrisOrg project), and water (project on water crisis management in Mayotte).
In May 2023, Olivier Borraz founded CrisisLab, a space for research, training, and experimentation in the humanities and social sciences dedicated to adapting to crisis situations. Its goal is to organize exchanges between researchers and practitioners on this subject.  CRISIS Lab receives support from the Gapave association and the Directorate-General for Civil Security and Crisis Management of the Ministry of the Interior.

Listen to the podcast Objets Trouvés with Olivier Borraz: Des risques aux crises

EDUCATION

• Degree

2007
Habilitation to supervise research at Sciences Po Paris, specializing in political science

1994
Doctorate from the Paris Institute of Political Studies, specializing in sociology

1987
Master's degree in sociology from the Paris Institute of Political Studies

1986
Master's degree in political sociology from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

• Professional career

Since 2007
Director of research

Since 1995
Research fellow at the CSO 

Lessons learnt from Mayotte's ongoing water crisis for the management of future crises ? (SAB Sciences Po-Université Paris Cité) 
 

• AGORAS (Amélioration de la Gouvernance des Organisations et des Réseaux d’Acteurs pour la Sûreté nucléaire)
• Sociological analysis of Eau de Paris
• HowSAFE (How States Account for Failure in Europe)

• Crisis and Disaster Management, Master's in Governing Ecological Transition in European Cities, Sciences Po Urban School (with Inès Boubaker) 
• Governing Territories, Master's in Territorial and Urban Strategies; Sciences Po Urban School (with Patrick Le Galès) 
• Crisis management training at Sciences Po ExEd and the Institute for Higher Studies of the Ministry of the Interior (IHEMI)
• Case study in crisis management (with Jan Verlin), Sciences Po School of Public Affairs 

OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES

Since 2025
Scientific Director of the Master's program in Territorial and Urban Strategies at Sciences Po's Urban School

Since 2024
Scientific Director of the Academy of Negotiation and Mediation and Executive Education at Sciences Po

Depuis 2024
Conseil scientifique du département ACT (Sciences pour l’action, les transi-tions, les territoires) de l'Inrae

Depuis 2022
Conseil scientifique de la Direction générale des douanes et des droits indirects

2020-2023
Comité d’appui thématique de Santé Publique France sur l’impact sur la santé de l’incendie de Lubrizol

July 2013 - December 2022
Director of the CSO

2017-2018
Groupe de travail du Conseil d’État sur La prise en compte du risque dans la décision publique 

2013-2016
Elected to the Board of Directors of the Paris Institute of Political Studies 

2010-2015
Member of the Scientific Council of the French National Health Security Agency (Agence Nationale de Sécurité Sanitaire)

2007-2010
Member of the Scientific Council of the Health and Radiofrequencies Foundation

2007-2009
Member of the Scientific Council of the Institute for Public Health Research

2005-2008
Co-facilitator with Sandrine Lefranc and Daniel Benamouzig of the CNRS Multidisciplinary Thematic Network Societies in Motion, Social Science in Evolution

2006-2007
Member of the Evaluation Committee of the National Health and Environment Plan 

2003-2005
Member of the Scientific Council of the GIS Collective Risks and Crisis Situations

2000-2004
Scientific Secretary of Section 40 Politics, Power, and Organization of the CNRS National Committee

2000-2001
Membre de l’instance d’évaluation de la politique de préservation de la ressource en eau destinée à la consommation humaine, Commissariat Général au Plan

1998
CNRS Bronze medal

1995
GRALE-CNRS “Prix special du jury” [Jury Prize] for theses about local governments

• Olivier Borraz (dir.), La société des organisations, Presses de Sciences Po, 2022.
• Olivier Borraz et Elsa Gisquet, « L’extension du domaine de la crise ? Les exercices de gestion de crise dans la gouvernance de la filière nucléaire française », Critique Internationale, 85, 2019 : 43-61.
• Olivier Borraz, Anne-Laure Beaussier, Mara Wesseling, David Demeritt, Henry Rothstein, Regine Paul, Michael Huber et Marijke Hermans, « Why regulators assess risk differently: Regulatory style, business organization, and the varied practice of risk-based food safety inspections across the EU », Regulation and Governance, 16/1, 2022: 275-292, https://doi.org/10.1111/rego.12320.
• Olivier Borraz et Emilien Ruiz, « Saisir l’Etat par son administration : pour une sociologie des rouages de l’action publique », Revue Française de Science Politique, 70/1, 2020 : 7-20.
• Elsa Gisquet et Olivier Borraz, « Simuler une crise : la construction de la réalité dans les exercices d’accident nucléaire », Sociologie, 11/4, 2020 : 385-398.
  Olivier Borraz et Emilien Ruiz, « Vers une histoire de l’intelligence administrative », Le Mouvement Social, 4/273, 2020 : 3-12.
• Olivier Borraz et David Demortain, « Managing technical reputation : Regulatory agencies and evidential work in risk assessment », Public Administration, 2021: 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12734 
• Olivier Borraz et Bengt Jacobsson. « Organizing Expertise Duringa Crisis. France and Sweden in the Fight Against Covid-19 ». Journal of Organizational Sociology, 1/1, 2023 : 73-107. 
• Olivier Borraz, « Authoritarianism as a bureaucratic phenomenon », Tocqueville Review, 45/1, 2024 : 115-125.
  Olivier Borraz et Valérie November, « Le temps des crises. Une histoire de la gestion des crises en France », L'Année Sociologique, 2/252 : 97-133