[Blood donation: Representations and issues associated with blood product collection]

In order to answer to its aim of standardised self-sufficiency, the Établissement français du sang (main French national platform for blood donation) needs to know well the donors, what moves them, what motivates them, and the meaning that they give to their action. This knowledge allows the EFS to better understand the different sensitivities among donors, and therefore to improve the strategy regarding loyalty or/and newcomers. In this paper we follow, without attempting to be fully exhaustive, the evolution of the research regarding blood donation. The aim is to highlight the role played by social and historical representations regarding donation in general. In a given community, its norms, and its values influence both the image of donors as well as the meaning attached to the act itself of donation. Moreover, these norms have also influenced the way that research has tried to analyse this topic. The initial studies conducted in this field tried generally to understand the meaning and the symbolism attached to the act of blood donation. Later on, researchers started to focus on the assessment of notions such as generosity, and then solidarity. Nowadays, research is more focused on describing the population that gives blood. They are more scrutinised through their socio-demographic traits (who they are) than through the specific study of how they donate, the reasons behind the decision to act and the notion of satisfaction.