Le développement d’une économie des singularités dans le champ de l’action sociale et médico-sociale en France : un nouveau champ de questionnements éthiques

Abstract

In France, the social and medico-social sector is having to meet social needs that are in the process of rapid and profound change. The transformation of this sector, which has been orchestrated by public policies, is coalescing around an economy of benefits that is supposedly in the process of adapting to meet the needs of those groups deemed vulnerable as a result of old age or handicap. This economy or marketplace has
been drawing together personalised professional services seen as capable of responding to the individual needs of those requesting them. It consists of distinct products and services that are both unrelated and difficult to evaluate, with the ‘consumer’ having to be guided through it to make the best possible choice. How to undertake a search for the right product is by no means an obvious matter, as the market is lacking in transparency and its products are of uncertain quality. To reduce the impact of these shortcomings, ‘consumers’ are forced to have recourse to information-seeking methods in finding a path towards a viable choice. The economics of singularities, a theoretical approach developed by Karpik (2007), offers us
an interesting sociological reading of the development and growth of the services market in the social and medico-social sector, and provides us with analytical tools that allow us to grasp the realities of this evolution.