‘Re-Opening the Black Box’: The Story of Implementing a Risk Analysis Method in a French Local Government

This research is a study of the implementation of a risk analysis method (RAM) in a French local government. Based on the sociology of translation framework, this study shows that the success of the implementation of this management device is due to the transformation of its initial characteristics. Indeed, the RAM was initially designed to analyze the risks of outsourcing public services and thereby to aid elected officials with decision making. But in the hands of the actors in charge of its implementation, it progressively became a means for the members of the administrative services to inform elected officials about the consequences of their choices. This paper thus describes the ‘trajectory’ of this management device in a local government and, in doing so, emphasizes how it progressively became what it is (and what it is not) at present in this local government.