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Project presentationIn December 2016 France’s Ordre National des Vétérinaires published a hefty document of more than 330 pages, entitled Atlas démographique de la profession vétérinaire (demographic atlas of the veterinary profession). It contains a vast amount of data on the profession, set out both by region and in national aggregate form. This is a wonderful opportunity to begin a series of notes designed to see how these new data relate to questions raised in social sciences literature on the veterinary profession.We have placed a certain number of “insets” from the atlas throughout this introductory note to illustrate issues that we examine here.With a dual preface by French Minister of Agriculture Stéphane Le Foll and Michel Baussier, Chairman of France’s National Order of Veterinarians ((The regulatory body of the veterinary profession. The RCVS is for example its equivalent in the UK)), the atlas sets out the profession’s diverse sociodemographic evolutions.Stéphane Le Foll highlights the 11% increase in the number of vets joining the Order over the last 5 years, the feminisation of the profession (72% of newcomers in 2015), the decline in the number of self-employed veterinarians, the increasing size of the workforce and the decline of farm animal veterinary practices in favour of small animal practices. For many years, these dynamics have been helping to transform this professional group and its activities; it is now interesting to analyse them with these new data.For his part, Michel Baussier welcomes the creation of a national demographic observatory for the veterinary profession, the first achievement of which is this atlas. He describes it first and foremost as a tool for veterinarians themselves, who are searching “in vain, among their young colleagues, for an assistant, a collaborator or even a partner, a successor”. He also highlights his enthusiasm for the educational orientation of “middle and high school pupils and their parents, of veterinary students, their teachers (…)”. Finally, he lists the diverse information available in the atlas: sociodemographic data on veterinarians, statistics on types and geographical distribution of practice, on animals treated, etc. The Chairman thus makes an implicit link between the creation of this atlas and the issues that are traversing the profession and that have been the source of debate for some considerable time – particularly its demographic and geographical longevity (referred to as the “territorial grid”), the survival and/or development of certain specialisations and relationships with clients. Distribution by age and type of veterinarian registered with the OrderFrance’s veterinary profession has 18,084 members, of which 9,302 are men (51.4%) and 8,782 are women (48.6%), so a very even split. However, a pyramid representation of age groups shows two important evolutions: a major renewal over the next 15 years and a strong feminisation dynamic. The age distribution shows that 1/3 of veterinarians are now over 50 (5,660 persons, i.e. 31.3% of all veterinarians). The profession will thus be considerably renewed over the next 15 years. It is mainly men who will be leaving the profession (4,397 male veterinarians are aged over 50 as opposed to only 1,263 females), and the majority (2/3) of new recruits are women (1,707 female vets under the age of 30 as against 548 men).However, this distribution also varies in accordance with type of activity (rural, small animal, etc.) and type of practice (partner, employee, independent, etc.), which raises numerous questions concerning the professional dynamics of this feminisation process.The amount of data it provides, its rich iconography and its promises of future in-depth assessments certainly make the atlas an important step towards an understanding of the profession. But whilst it is an imposing work, this is not the first time that information on veterinarians has been produced: Several professional organizations regularly provide such data. Every year the Order publishes a slimmed-down version of the Atlas on its internet site; the veterinary press - La Dépêche Vétérinaire or La Semaine Vétérinaire for example - regularly publish surveys and articles on the profession’s sociodemographics; and numerous theses (defended in the final year of veterinary school) are based on surveys carried out among members of the profession. Social sciences works also contribute towards an analysis of this professional group, even though the situation in France essentially remains an object of historical research in line with Ronald Hubscher’s seminal work, Les Maîtres des Bêtes. To explore contemporary issues on the other hand, one can refer to a far richer and more diversified Anglo-Saxon literature on animal health and the veterinary profession (especially in history, sociology, geography, anthropology and political science). Whilst these works mainly cover British and American cases, the issues discussed also serve to throw light on French dynamics and even to raise the question of the internationalisation of professional dynamics. Speciality of veterinarians registered with the OrderWe can see that 50% of veterinarians work with small animals (AC). If we add those who have a mixed practice where small animal specialisation is predominant (Mixte AC, 18.2%), we find that 2/3 of veterinarians work solely or mostly with small animals. Veterinarians with farm animal practices (AR, 13.1%) or mixed practices that are predominantly rural (Mixte AR 9.7%) thus represent less than a quarter of the profession.According to a brochure published by the Order in 2014 (“Vétérinaire, un diplôme, une profession, des métiers” ((Veterinarian, one qualification, one profession, many occupations)), published in February 2014), this distribution of professional specialisation is relatively recent, as the number of rural vets has remained stable for the last twenty years (approx. 4,000), whereas the number of small animal vets has almost doubled since 2000 (from 6,000 to over 10,000). This dynamic therefore raises many questions about changes to the profession and to professional identities.NB : these data are based on self-declarations by registered veterinarians.The wealth of works from abroad suggests that there has been a very limited dialogue in France between works by the veterinarian profession and those produced by the social sciences ((The case of Philippe Fritsch, professor of sociology at Lyon II university, and dissertation supervisor at the Veterinary School of Lyon, remained an exception. He published several papers on veterinarians and an interesting book on the profession Être vétérinaire, which goes far beyond a simple presentation of an occupation in a book collection about educational counseling)). For this reason, in the series of blog notes that we are inaugurating, and using the Atlas Démographique de la Profession Vétérinaire as a basis, we will endeavour to show how research from these various sources might communicate and mutually inspire one another.So as our themed notes are published, we will cross-reference data from the Atlas with those found in the final-year theses and with a section of the bibliography we created for , an ANR ((French National Research Agency)) project on animal health policy: The final-year theses have been collected by searching the database in the library at the Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire in Alfort, which has held theses from all four national veterinary schools since 1974. A search under the heading “veterinary profession” gave access to 266 notes. We retained only those which are available online and which focus on a study of the profession, i.e. a total of approximately sixty theses published after 2000. The social science bibliography has been developed over recent years, particularly during the PAN project; it contains fifty or so articles which deal with specific professional issues. It is available in a zotero group that can be consulted at the following address: https://www.zotero.org/groups/pan And of course the atlas itself, which can be downloaded here: https://www.veterinaire.fr/fileadmin/user_upload/documents/accueil/atlas-demographique.pdf Veterinary school of origin for new students (in 2015)France’s four veterinary schools (Alfort, Lyon, Nantes, Toulouse) account for 60.4% of all new members of the Order. At the same time, 183 veterinarians were qualified in Belgium – the equivalent of one and a half years’ of graduates from a French veterinary school. Veterinarians qualifying in other European countries also represent a year’s of veterinary graduates.This state of affairs challenges the modalities of professional regulation (in particular the notion of numerus clausus) and strategies for accessing the veterinary profession, because the school of origin of veterinarians qualifying outside France says nothing about their nationality (some vets trained in Belgium and practicing in France in fact have French nationality). Distribution of veterinarians in France in relation to their schools of originThese maps show how school location affects where veterinarians work after qualifying; it should be noted, especially where rural medicine is concerned, that the place of practice suggests a significantly different activity (due to the distribution of animal production sectors throughout the country). As the specialities taught in schools are not exactly the same, this raises questions about the role that training plays in constructing representations of the profession and the expectations of future veterinarians.Explanation: the percentage expresses the ratio of the number of veterinarians qualifying at a given school to the total number of veterinarians, by region (French département). Here we present a montage of maps from the Atlas, available on pages 43 (Alfort), 45 (Toulouse), 47 (Lyon) and 49 (Nantes).By comparing these different sources over the weeks to come, we aim to discuss recurring themes such as: insertion and professional trajectories; the feminisation of the profession; client relations; ethical issues, especially those relating to animal euthanasia; practices and division of tasks in veterinary practices; the activity of the rural vet; the evolution in economic and legal models in veterinary practices, etc.This blog project is open to contributions from anyone interested in the analysis of dynamics of the veterinary profession. Please contact Laure Bonnaud or Nicolas Fortané if you wish to contribute.&#160;[cite]&#160;