Capturing and (Co)Producing Scientific Knowledge under Constraints: The “Expert Turn” of Surfrider Foundation Europe

Because it is mainly focused on the association process between scientists and nonscientists, the coproduction model tends to homogenize numerous and different actors into a common social and cognitive space. In this paper, my aim is not to establish a strict boundary between science and common sense but to maintain the heterogeneity of actors when they are placed together within scientific networks. Through the case of Surfrider Foundation Europe, a French surfers’ organization, and by taking into account the logics of the political space as well as the moral dimensions of scientific activities, it will be argued that including science in an organization’s repertoire of actions leads not only to asymmetrical sets of power between activists and legitimate scientists but also to internal constraints and struggles between activists.