<p>The environmental concern starts to be a key challenging issue for organizations nowadays. In fact, we find a growing trend towards “green” consumerism, which in turns affects companies’ strategy. The hospitality industry is not considered as one of the biggest pollution emitters, neither the one consuming the biggest quantity of non-renewable resources, but it is particularly interesting because of its increasing economic importance and the higher environmental concern it is showing. The whole process by which the hotels define policies, strategies as well as develop environmental practices in order to reduce their negative impact on the natural environment is named as Environmental Management. Those hotels that have followed this process and strive to be more environmentally friendly through the efficient use of energy, water and materials while providing quality services are defined as “green hotels”. Thus, in the present study we discover what motivated hotels in Sweden to become green, as well as the steps they followed in turning into green, including the definition of goals, the implementation of practices and the potential barriers that make this process difficult to execute.</p><p>In a first approach, we found in the literature review some theories related to the factors that influence companies to become green, as well as how to define a green strategy. In a second section, we focused on how the goals must be defined and which indicators can be used to evaluate the environmental performance. Finally, we presented possible barriers, relating this fact to the prioritization of objectives.</p><p>We led a qualitative approach by running semi-structured and structured interviews to the manager and one employee, respectively, of three different hotels in Abisko and Umeå. The results showed that the main reason why hotels become green is because of the pressure the stakeholders exert on them. The main steps hotels followed to achieve this objective were the establishment of plans and goals, involving the department´s level, its implementation (practices), review, evaluation and improvement of the environmental strategy. But this process is not easy; hotels have to manage with the big cost associated to become green.</p><p>At the end of the study, some suggestions will be given to hoteliers (e.g. define specific goals) as well as some suggestions for future researches (study of hotels from different cities of Sweden).</p>

The environmental concern starts to be a key challenging issue for organizations nowadays. In fact, we find a growing trend towards “green” consumerism, which in turns affects companies’ strategy. The hospitality industry is not considered as one of the biggest pollution emitters, neither the one consuming the biggest quantity of non-renewable resources, but it is particularly interesting because of its increasing economic importance and the higher environmental concern it is showing. The whole process by which the hotels define policies, strategies as well as develop environmental practices in order to reduce their negative impact on the natural environment is named as Environmental Management. Those hotels that have followed this process and strive to be more environmentally friendly through the efficient use of energy, water and materials while providing quality services are defined as “green hotels”. Thus, in the present study we discover what motivated hotels in Sweden to become green, as well as the steps they followed in turning into green, including the definition of goals, the implementation of practices and the potential barriers that make this process difficult to execute. In a first approach, we found in the literature review some theories related to the factors that influence companies to become green, as well as how to define a green strategy. In a second section, we focused on how the goals must be defined and which indicators can be used to evaluate the environmental performance. Finally, we presented possible barriers, relating this fact to the prioritization of objectives. We led a qualitative approach by running semi-structured and structured interviews to the manager and one employee, respectively, of three different hotels in Abisko and Umeå. The results showed that the main reason why hotels become green is because of the pressure the stakeholders exert on them. The main steps hotels followed to achieve this objective were the establishment of plans and goals, involving the department´s level, its implementation (practices), review, evaluation and improvement of the environmental strategy. But this process is not easy; hotels have to manage with the big cost associated to become green. At the end of the study, some suggestions will be given to hoteliers (e.g. define specific goals) as well as some suggestions for future researches (study of hotels from different cities of Sweden).

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Performance management processes in the South African public service are often perceived and implemented in isolation from other organisational and management policies, strategies, systems and processes. The central problem addressed in this study concerns the lack of integration of different aspects of performance management into a coherent system. This problem affects motivation and performance of staff.This study provides an overview of the broad field of performance management and specifically focuses on public service integrated performance management systems. One of the main objectives of this study is to identify performance management challenges from an integrated perspective and to develop potential solutions for these challenges.In order to achieve this objective, a literature review and data collection processes were conducted, which served as the foundation on which the research was based. The qualitative research methodology was chosen as it allows for interpretative research and a holistic approach to the research process, which ensures the best way of representing and addressing the complexities of integrated performance management systems and motivation within the context of the public sector. Seventy-six respondents, mainly senior and middle managers from various national and provincial government departments, participated in the study.The fieldwork results identified major strengths, weaknesses and proposed suggestions for the improvement of the existing performance management systems in the public service. Results were analysed, interpreted, discussed and incorporated into the recommendations. Contrary to some negative public perceptions and anecdotal evidence of poor public service performance management, the majority of senior managers in government departments are satisfied with the overall quality, value for money, relevance, appropriateness and simplicity of the process. Integration of various subsystems of performance management system is facilitated by policy initiatives such as cooperative governance and intergovernmental relations. One of the major areas of dissatisfaction is the time required for conducting the performance management process, which is often seen as a last minute compliance exercise. The performance management system has become an isolated activity, not linked to organisational strategy and processes. Additional major weaknesses of the performance management system are identified in the areas of the reward system, design of the system, objectivity of performance judgement, lack of skills and leadership support in the implementation process, communication,and monitoring and evaluation processes.The study recommends that performance management has to be approached from an integrated perspective. The process of the design of performance management must include a thorough consultation with major stakeholders.The implementation of the system has to be supported and driven by top leadership and management. The change management process should be supported by a proactive communication strategy and it should be managed strategically and by competent staff. A reward system that distinguishes high from mediocre performance should be put in place. Programmes must be implemented to ensure high levels of staff motivation. Monitoring and evaluation mechanisms must be put in place to ensure implementation of sustainable performance management systems. These recommendations led to the design of an integrated performance management system.The study concludes that integrated performance management, as a multidisciplinary methodology related to organisational strategy, structure,culture, systems and processes, should be regarded as a critical tool for improving motivation and performance of individuals, teams, departments and the public service as a whole.

In the summer of 1986, anglers along three sections of the Logan and Blacksmith Fork Rivers, Utah were surveyed as to their attitudes toward fish stocking, habitat improvement, and wild trout management policies. Information concerning socio-demographic characteristics and ang ling values were ascertained as well. Data were cross tabulated to determine which of the variab les influence anglers' attitudes toward spec ifi c fisheries manage ment policies and the type of angling opportunity provided. The analysis of data s how e d differences between the types of anglers using the three sample sections. The data showed that variables such as preferred angling method, preferred water type, number of fishing trips taken this year, age, importance of keeping fish, and whether an angler emphasizes catching a large number of fish or large fish, can influence anglers ' attitudes toward fisheries management policies. The ungrouped data showed that the anglers sampled preferred: to catch brown or cutthroat trout; fish stocking to be limited to waters which have little or no natural reproduction or production; larger (14 inch) catchable size trout to be stocked even if it means a smaller number of fish will be stocked; the State to emphasize habitat improvement right along with fish stocking in their management plan; and the continuation of the policy to provide a limited amount of 11 Wild trout., regulated waters for angling variety.

<p> Direct policy search (DPS) has been shown to be an efficient method for identifying optimal rules (i.e., policies) for adapting a system in response to changing conditions. This dissertation describes three major advances in the usage of DPS for long-range infrastructure planning, using a specific application domain of flood risk management. We first introduce a new adaptive way to incorporate learning into DPS. The standard approach identifies policies by optimizing their average performance over a large ensemble of future states of the world (SOW). Our approach exploits information gained over time, regarding what kind of SOW is being experienced, to further improve performance via adaptive meta-policies defining how control of the system should switch between policies identified by a standard DPS approach (but trained on different SOWs). We outline the general method and illustrate it using a case study of optimal dike heightening extending the work of Garner and Keller (2018). The meta-policies identified by the adaptive algorithm show Pareto-dominance in two objectives over the standard DPS, with an overall 68% improvement in hypervolume. We also see the improved performance over three grouped SOWs based on future extreme water levels, with the hypervolume improvements of 90%, 46%, and 35% for low, medium, and high water level SOWs respectively. Additionally, we evaluate the degree of improvement achieved by different ways of implementing the algorithm (i.e., different hyperparameter values). This provides guidance for decision makers with different degrees of risk aversion, and computational budgets. </p> <p>Due to simplifying assumptions and limitations of the adaptive DPS model used in the chapter, such as uniform levee design heights, the Surge and Waves Model for Protection Systems (SWaMPS) is presented as a more realistic application of the DPS framework. SWaMPS is a process-based model of surge-based flood risk. This chapter marks the first implementation of DPS using a realistic process-based risk model. The physical process of storm surge and rainfall is simulated independently over multiple reaches, and different frequencies are explored to manage the production system in SWaMPS. The performance of the DPS algorithm is evaluated versus a static intertemporal optimization.</p> <p>The computational burden of evaluating the large ensemble of SOWs to include possible future events in DPS motivates us to apply scenario reduction methods to select representative scenarios that more efficiently span an uncertain parameter space. This allows us to reduce the runtime of the optimization process. We explore a range of data-mining tools, including principal component analysis (PCA) and clustering to reduce the scenarios. We compare the computational efficiency and quality of policies to this optimization problem with reduced ensembles of SOWs.</p>

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / A Produção do Espaço na Amazônia brasileira, em especial em Boa Vista, pode ser analisada como reflexo consciente e inconsciente da ação dos Agentes produtores do espaço, pelo uso de Políticas Públicas. Assim, este trabalho objetiva analisar a produção do espaço urbano de Boa Vista a partir da inserção de políticas públicas no período de 1988, quando da criação do Estado, até o ano de 2011. Este recorte decorre da necessidade de refletir sobre as implicações socioespaciais das políticas públicas e de governo nesse período, com destaque para as de ordem municipal. Nesse sentido, buscou-se, em primeiro lugar, discutir os aspectos teóricos e empíricos elementos constitutivos do referido trabalho tais como Planejamento, Políticas Públicas e Produção do Espaço. Num segundo momento tratou-se dos elementos históricos necessários à compreensão de forças institucionais que agem na produção do espaço, como Estatuto da Cidade, Plano Diretor e Agentes Sociais. Em seguida procurou-se discutir sobre a Produção do Espaço na Amazônia, para finalmente tratar das gestões públicas no período indicado. Para tanto, utilizou-se o método analítico-sintético para diagnosticar o processo de desenvolvimento urbano, os vetores desse processo, considerando as formas de ocupação, quais os aspectos urbanos e de urbanização decorrentes das políticas de gestão, por meio de pesquisa bibliográfica, documental e entrevistas. Esse trabalho levou-nos à percepção de que a Produção do Espaço em Boa Vista-RR pode ser vista como resultado da ação mercadológica do planejamento e das políticas públicas urbanas. / The production of the space in the Brazilian Amazonian , especially in Boa Vista, it can be analyzed as reflex conscious and unconscious of the action of the Agents producing of the space, for the use of Public Politics. Like this, this work aims to analyze the production of the urban space of Boa Vista starting from the insert of public politics in the period of 1988, after the creation of the State, until the year of 2011. This cutting elapses of the need of contemplating on the implications socioespacial of the public politics and of the government in that period, with prominence for the one of municipal order. In that sense, it was looked for, in first place, to discuss the theoretical aspects and empiric constituent elements of the referred work such as Planning, Public Politics and Production of the Space. In a second moment it was treated from the necessary historical elements to the understanding of institutional forces that they act in the production of the space, as Statute of the City, master plan and Social Agents. Soon after it we tried to discuss on the Production of the Space in the Amazonian, for finally to treat of the public administrations in the suitable period. For so much, the analytic-synthetic method was used to diagnose the process of urban development, the vectors of that process, considering the occupation forms, which the urban aspects and of urbanization current of the administration politics, through research bibliographical, documental and glimpses. That work took us to the perception that the Production of the Space in Boa Vista-RR it can be seen as a result of the market action of the planning and of the urban public politics.

本論文旨在研究陽明山國家公園管理處經營管理政策對園區住民之影響情形，主要探討內容有四：園區住民對國家公園經營管理策略及該策略對住民影響情形的評價；不同基本屬性的園區住民對國家公園經營管理策略及該策略對住民影響情形評價之差異性；國家公園經營管理策略與園區住民的相關性；國家公園經營管理策略對園區住民的影響程度等。 本文採系統隨機抽樣法，以設籍於陽明山國家公園範圍內之現有人口為研究對象，共抽取542份研究樣本，採二階段自行編制問卷為研究工具，資料處理採用描述性統計分析法與推論性統計分析法（卡方檢定、t檢定、單因子變異數分析法、皮爾森相關係數分析法、迴歸分析法等），獲致結果如下： 一、園區住民對國家公園經營管理之各構面的評價情形由高而低依次為：解說教育、公共建設、保育研究、觀光遊憩、法令執行、土地政策。 二、園區住民對住民影響之各構面的評價情形由高而低依次為：文化面、生活面、生存面、經濟面。 三、除性別外，年齡、婚姻狀況、教育程度、職業、居住轄區、居住時間等不同個人基本屬性皆對國家公園經營管理之各構面的評價具差異性。 四、除性別、年齡、婚姻狀況、居住時間外，教育程度、職業、居住轄區等不同個人基本屬性皆對國家公園經營管理之各構面的評價具差異性。 五、國家公園經營管理之各構面與住民影響變項的相關性強度順序： 解說教育＞保育研究＞土地政策＞法令執行＞觀光遊憩＞建物管理（負相關） 六、國家公園經營管理之各構面對住民影響變項的解釋程度由高而低依次為：解說教育、保育研究、土地政策、法令執行、建物管理。 依據結論提出建議重點如下： 一、應將「解說教育」列為陽明山國家公園管理處最首要推動之業務項目，並加強與園區住民切身權益相關之施政的宣導、溝通與說明。 二、應將「建物管理」列為陽明山國家公園管理處首要改革之業務項目，將相關業務作業流程公平化、透明化，杜絕人為不法。 三、應將「保育研究」列為陽明山國家公園管理處重點推動之業務項目，以宏觀保護區理念與生物多樣性觀點，將住民納入整體保育之規劃範疇。 / The purpose of this thesis is to study the impact of the Yangmingshan National Park’s management policies on the residents in the national park area. This thesis covers four parts: the residents’ evaluation of the impact of national park management policies, the differences in the evaluation among residents of different demographic features, the relation between the national management policies and residents, and the level of impact of national park management polices on residents. This study randomly sampled 542 residents among those who currently registered their households in the national park area. The research method is based on two-stage questionnaire design; and the data processing methods include descriptive statistics and hypothesis analysis (chi-square test, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient analysis, regressions, etc). The results are summarized as follows: 1. In descending order, residents’ evaluations on various aspects of the management of the national park were: interpretation programs, public facilities, research on nature conservation, legal regulation enforcement, and land policies. 2. In descending order, residents’ evaluations on the impact of various national park polices on themselves were: culture, daily life, survival and economics. 3. Residents’ evaluations on national park management policies varied according to different demographic features, such as age, marriage status, education level, occupation, living area and residence time, excluding gender. 4. Residents’ evaluations on national park management policies varied according to different demographic features, such as education level, occupation and living area, excluding gender, age, marriage status and residence time. 5. The strength of the association between various aspects of the national park management polices and the impact on residents was (in descending order): interpretation programs > research on nature conservation > land policies > legal regulation enforcement > tourist and leisure activities > building management (negative association). 6. In descending order, the significance of the various aspects of national park management polices in the impact on residents was: interpretation programs, researches on nature conservation, land policies, legal regulation enforcement and building management. Based on the findings, the author makes the following suggestions: 1. The Yangmingshan National Park Headquarters should consider prioritizing the promotion of “Interpretation Programs” over other businesses and strengthening the communication with local residents about related polices that may affect their rights. 2. The Yangmingshan National Park Headquarters should put the “Building Management” in top priority for reform and keep the processes of related businesses fair and transparent, as well as avoid any illegal conducts. 3. “Researches on Nature Conservation” should be one of the key businesses promoted by the Yangmingshan National Park Headquarters. The promotion should be based on the concepts of geology reservation and the rich diversity of wildlife. Residents should be included in the planning process.

The share of patents held by the universities reflects the strength of technological research of any nation. Despite legislative encouragement provided in most countries for universities to patent their research, academic patents form only a small volume of patents filed in any country. Universities do not seem to patent most of their research. This situation is exacerbated in the case of India, where only 0.7% of the patents during the period 2003 – 05 were owned by the universities. This concern led to the current study of probing the patenting behaviour of faculty. From extant literature, we found that most of the research in academic patenting was either at university level or national level and the conclusions were based on econometric analyses of secondary data. A major limitation of those studies was that, they assume individual characteristics as constant. The contribution of this study is to relax the above mentioned assumption and focus on studying the impact of individual characteristics of faculty on their patenting behavior. The thesis has three main objectives, namely a. To develop a model of academic patenting behavior with academic inventors as the focus. b. To deduce individual characteristics that distinguishes an academic patentee from an academic non patentee. c. To provide insightful suggestions to administrators at universities for intellectual property management policies and practices, along with talent management practices to enable patenting behavior. We modeled patenting behavior at the individual level as being influenced by demographic variables such as designation, prior industrial experience and behavioral variables, namely, attitudes towards patenting, situational awareness of support for patenting, personality traits like resilience and creative personality traits and motives like monetary, fame and prosocial motives. Initially, eight academic patentees were interviewed to arrive at individual characteristics requiring study. We combined the behavioral characteristics derived from the content analysis of the initial study with our insights from the gaps in the existing literature and designed a questionnaire. The questionnaire aimed at measuring seven behavioral variables along with collecting information on demographic details. The seven behavioral variables included in our study are creative personality traits, resilience, attitudes towards patenting, situational awareness of support for patenting, monetary motives, fame motives and prosocial motives. The main study was conducted using survey research design. We contacted 1200 faculty from Indian Institute of Science, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Indian Institute of Technology Madras and Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur initially through e-mail and later in person. We used data provided by a sample of 249 faculty members for the analyses. In the sample, 115 are academic-patentees and 134 are academic-non-patentees. We attempted to determine individual characteristics that distinguish an academic-patentee from an academic-non-patentee. The results from our study indicated that in academic patentees there was a statistically significant correlation between prosocial motive and situational awareness of support patenting. While in the case of academic non patentees, there was a significant correlation between fame motive and monetary motive. Using t-test, we were able to conclude that academic patentees differed significantly (p < 0.01) from academic non patentees in their attitude towards patenting and in their situational awareness of support for patenting. We found that both the academic patentees and academic non patentees were high in resilience and did not differ from each other significantly. When we looked into differences in motives we found that academic patentees differed significantly (p < 0.01) in their prosocial and monetary motives. Both the groups were high on fame motives and did not differ significantly from each other. Based on results of chi-square tests of the 28 creative personality traits, we could conclude that academic patentees differed significantly from academic non patentees (p < 0.01) in describing themselves as unconventional and inventive. We found that our model of patenting behavior that included demographic variables like age and prior industrial experience along with behavioral variables like attitudes towards patenting, situational awareness of support for patenting and being unconventional explained maximum variance (Nagelkerke R2 = 0.48). We were able to classify 78% of the sample correctly into academic patentees and academic non patentees. The Wald criterion demonstrated that all the predictors made significant contribution to prediction. We were able to establish the importance of predictors in determining patenting behavior. We found designation as the most important predictor among those included in our study. Other things being equal, the odds of a Professor or an Associate Professor being a patentee was 5.6 times more than those of an Assistant Professor. We found the creative personality trait “unconventional” as the second most important predictor. The odds of faculty who describe themselves as “unconventional”, being a patentee was 4.5 times more than those who do not describe themselves as unconventional. The third important predictor was prior industrial experience (odds ratio: 1.9), the fourth and the fifth being situational awareness of support for patenting (odds ratio: 1.3) and attitudes towards patenting (odds ratio: 1.2), respectively. Thus to conclude, we found that both demographic and behavioral factors influence the patenting behavior. Our revised model of academic patenting indicates that two types of advantages have positive influence on academic patenting behavior at the individual level. We named them as experience advantage and psychological advantage. Experience advantage is gained as a result of increased academic experience and increased industrial experience. The psychological advantage results when an academic inventor, as an individual is “unconventional”, has positive attitude towards patenting and is aware about support available for patenting to a large extent. Based on our research, we suggest intellectual property management practices and talent management practices that are likely to increase the patenting behavior of academic inventors. Attitude towards patenting can be improved by making patenting experience more positive and by providing more assistance for patenting through the Intellectual Property Cell / Technology Transfer Office. Increasing awareness of support for patenting can be promoted by making available information on government funding agencies and industrial partners who would support in patent filing and in commercializing patents. Such information not only prevents the pile up of unutilized academic patents but also encourages the faculty to continue to engage in patenting behavior. Academic patenting behavior can also be facilitated through promoting organizational culture that encourages their members to be “unconventional”. The limitations of the study and suggested future research are also described in the thesis.

This dissertation argues that stormwater management is fragmented both at that vertical fragmentation (at the level of intergovernmental relations) and horizontal fragmentation (within the level of governments). The first essay focuses on the institutional arrangements used by states to implement stormwater management policies. Building on the race to the bottom literature, I examine the impact of the institutional arrangement centralization on state water quality in California, Texas, Virginia, and Minnesota. A five-year (2013-2018) permitting cycle was used to analyze five dimensions: formalism, coercion, education, prioritization, and accommodation.There is an inverse relationship between the quality of stormwater and the degree of centralization in the institutional arrangements adopted by state governments to implement their stormwater management policies. The second essay focuses on a local government's decision to join an inter-local agreement to comply with federal/state stormwater management policies. Building on the transaction cost framework, the study used a cross-sectional design to analyze a case study. The case study consists of 119 cities subjected to stormwater regulation requirements in northern Texas during 2017. The dependent variable is the membership of the regional inter-local agreement, and the independent variables are the number of neighboring cities and population density. Community wealth, public works spending, stormwater fees, government type, and the percent of the population over 65 were used as control variables. Logistic regression was used for data analysis. This study concludes that the increase in the number of neighboring regulated local governments is associated with an increase in the likelihood of a decision by the regulated local government to join an interlocal agreement (ILA), as well as finding that an increase in the population density is associated with an increase in the likelihood of a decision by the regulated local government to join the ILA. In addition, the study found that the type of government also affects a decision to enter into a cooperative relationship to meet the regulative burdens associated with implementing the stormwater management policies imposed by state/federal governments. The results found in this dissertation contribute to bridging the gap in our knowledge on the impact of the institutional framework adopted by the states to implement environmental policy through empirically evaluating the effect of institutional arrangements (as represented in the States general MS4 permits) on the policy output (reducing the level of stormwater pollution).

En décembre 2012, une controverse sur les risques accrus de thrombose veineuse profonde associés aux pilules contraceptives dites de nouvelles générations éclate en France. Cette controverse conduit à l’expression d’une critique à l’égard de la pilule en France, érigée jusqu’alors comme symbole de l’émancipation féminine. Près d’une femme sur cinq abandonne la pilule au profit d’autres méthodes, déstabilisant le modèle contraceptif français centré sur la promotion de ce contraceptif. Malgré son intensité, la controverse est tardive. Dès 1995, les risques associés avaient été identifiés dans de nombreux pays européens, dont le Royaume-Uni.Cette thèse cherche à comprendre le confinement des risques pendant près de vingt années en France. Elle s’appuie sur une enquête par entretiens semi-directifs (n=74) conduits auprès d’acteur·rice·s français·es et européen·ne·s de la contraception, complétée par une analyse des archives du Ministère de la Santé et par une revue de la littérature scientifique et institutionnelle. L’analyse de la controverse britannique de 1995 apporte un éclairage sur les spécificités de la situation française.L’analyse de cette controverse permet de retracer les politiques contraceptives françaises des années 1980 à nos jours. Cette histoire met en évidence la structuration d’un espace de la contraception construit autour d’un schéma hormonal et genré d’appréhension des corps reproducteurs. Il fait apparaître le rôle central des laboratoires pharmaceutiques et l’influence importante de la gynécologie médicale en France. Ces éléments permettent de mieux comprendre la minimisation des risques associés aux contraceptifs hormonaux en France.Outre les stratégies de dissimulation du risque, la trajectoire de cette controverse témoigne aussi d’une division sexuelle du risque, notamment en matière de régulation du médicament. De nombreux travaux ont documenté les effets de la (bio)médicalisation de la contraception sur sa féminisation. Rares sont ceux qui proposent une analyse de la régulation du médicament en général et des contraceptifs en particulier dans une perspective de genre. Les logiques scientifiques, institutionnelles et politiques de définition, mesure et traitement du risque médicamenteux se sont pourtant construites autour d’une appréhension genrée des corps féminin et masculin. La controverse de 2012-2013 met en lumière une distinction et un partage inégal du risque contraceptif entre les sexes, une asymétrie qui repose sur l’essentialisation du travail contraceptif et reproductif. / In December 2012, a controversy broke out in France over the increased risks of deep vein thrombosis associated with new generation contraceptive pills. This controversy led to the expression of an intense criticism of the pill in France, which until then had been a symbol of female emancipation. Nearly one in five women thus dropped the pill in favor of other methods. This has destabilized a French contraceptive model focused on the promotion of the pill. Despite its intensity, this controversy happened in France with quite a delay. As early as 1995, the associated risks had been identified in many other European countries, including the United Kingdom.The aim of this research is to understand the ignorance of these risks in France for nearly twenty years. It is based on interviews (n=74) conducted with French and European actors committed in birth control. An analysis of the Ministry of Health’s archives and a review of the scientific and institutional literature have also been led. The analysis of the 1995 British controversy sheds light on the specificity of the French situation.The analysis of this controversy leads to describe the contraceptive policies from the 1980s to the present days. It reveals how the contraceptive space has been structured around a hormonal and gendered perception of the reproductive bodies. This analysis highlights the central role played by the pharmaceutical companies but also by medical gynecology in France. These first results help to better understand the minimizing of risks associated with hormonal contraceptives in France.The trajectory of this controversy shows more broadly a sexual division of risk, especially in matters of drugs regulation. Many studies have depicted how the (bio)medicalisation of birth control has led to its feminization. But few offer a gender analysis of drugs regulation in general and contraceptives regulation in particular. The scientific, institutional and political logics of definition, evaluation and handling of drugs risks are nevertheless embedded in a gendered perception of female and male bodies. The 2012-2013 controversy reveals the distinction and unequal sharing of contraceptive risks between sexes, an inequality that also relies on an essentialism of contraceptive and reproductive work.