ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on trends and transformations of science/society interactions as the broader context for understanding civil society actor's and patient organization's role in the medical research processes. The mobilization of patient associations like the French Association Francaise contre les Myopathies (AFM) has been crucial in prompting fruitful research on genetic diseases. Research and policy institutions may promote dialogic/participatory situations, citizens may contribute to relegating to the deficit realm an issue in which they have little interest. In general, therefore, biotechnological topics does not seem that the opposition of certain sectors of the general public to particular technical-scientific innovations is due solely to the presence of an information deficit. Moreover, contemporary science is increasingly challenging the very notion of a sharp distinction between producers and users of knowledge which rests on the basis of a diffusionist, deficit, and transfer vision of science communication.
