Didier Torny’s research works are at the crossroads of the sociology of mobilization, the sociology of law, public policies studies and science and technology studies. On risk and health issues, his publications have underlined the role of alarm raisers in the agenda setting theory, helped to clarify the role of administrations in writing, implementing and controlling public regulation and discussed the emergence of new forms of government, based on traceability, to address them. He has conducted granted research on many fieldworks and still work on controversies affecting preventive health policies: prion diseases, asbestos, pesticides, vaccines, diethylstilbestrol and endocrine disruptors, pandemic influenza, e-cigarette, mammograms.
In CSI (UMR 9217- CNRS), he also works on research evaluation, studying the making, use and critique of evaluation tools and norms (journal rankings, biblometrics, altmetrics, peer review), and, more broadly, on the political economy of academic publishing.