Paper short abstract:

This presentation traces the history of flu pandemic preparedness since 1976, focusing primarily on the work of international organizations, then on the French case. Apart from sanitary threats as such, the planning process involves a redefinition of "minimal life" in the most diverse areas.

Paper long abstract:

This presentation traces the history of flu pandemic preparedness since 1976, focusing primarily on the work of international organizations, then on the French case. Gradually extending from sanitary threats to economic and social issues, pandemic preparation involves new public (IMF, WTO, ...) and private actors (firms, trade associations, trade unions ...). This preparation process, which main frame is defined at the international level, enables each entity or group of entities, to define "core activities" of the relevant social worlds and how to secure them in crisis situations. Thus, the planning process is not detached from the realism constraints of health risks management of, but redefines what "minimal life" into "limp" becomes in complex modern societies, taking into account internal and external interdependent relationships. Planning simultaneously forges the risks and the security measures to face them, in the most diverse areas (management of dead bodies, post office, circulation of money, closure of schools, basic food stocking in the retail industry ...). If most of the planned measures were not implemented during the 2009 pandemic, the criticism of public action raised in Western Europe and at WHO level has not led to a withdrawal of preparation, but to its deepening by taking into account some endogenous risks of planning (closed assumptions, irreversibility) to produce more and more security.