What are the current constraints on the production of knowledge about society? What are the contingencies that make this possible and those that threaten it? When we think about the forms of surveillance that are exerted on social science researchers, to the point of endangering their research, we think of the reactions of the people we meet during our investigations. We also need to think about the views of fellow academics and the administrative, managerial, judicial or police attention paid to researchers' work.
Looking beyond public controversies, the book analyses these points with the rigour of sociological reasoning, providing an insight into the experiences of surveys in contexts that are both democratic and authoritarian. As you read through the book, you will take a critical look at the condition of the field researcher and the scientific issues at stake, as well as the civic issues involved in contributing to public debate.

Philippe ALDRIN, Pierre FOURNIER and Yves MIRMAN are members of the Centre méditerranéen de sociologie, de science politique et d'histoire (MESOPOLHIS), and Vincent GEISSER of the Institut de recherches et d'études sur les mondes arabes et musulmans (IREMAM). Ph. ALDRIN is Professor of Political Science at Sciences Po Aix, P. FOURNIER, Professor of Sociology at Aix-Marseille University, V. GEISSER, Research Fellow in Sociology at the CNRS and Y. MIRMAN, research engineer in political science at the Université Catholique de Lyon. For this book, they have brought together previously unpublished contributions from researchers who have shared their research experience in a variety of fields.