Abstract
This interdisciplinary study explores a humanities and social science expertise commissioned and later contested by the State regarding shark risk in Réunion Island. The appointed expert implemented a participatory framework with transformative aims and authored a novel to expose power dynamics while circumventing institutional pressures. The dual communication approach (scientific expertise and literary narrative) is discussed with both the expert-author and the state commissioning authority. Referring to the theory of evolutionary governance, this study illustrates how power-knowledge forms related to risk management are contested and reconfigured in a context of public controversy.