Sustainable system of systems at work: unravelling (some of) the complexity of farmers’ transition to sustainability

Abstract

To support sustainable development, several researchers in ergonomics propose a comprehensive approach to work situations or the systems in which they are embedded. This article empirically instantiates one of the proposed models – the Sustainable System of Systems (SSoS) model – in the case of the work of farmers engaged in agroecological transitions. It thus explores complexity regarding sustainability, and to highlight its contributions and limits. Based on a case study, our results illustrate how the macro, meso and micro levels of SSoS are finely articulated in workers’ concerns, decisions, and trajectories to sustainability. We enrich this approach with a diachronic method to support the actors involved in such transitions as they navigate the complexities of sustainable transition.

Practitioner summary: The research proposes insights into how farmers manage their transition to more sustainable practices, by revealing the various systems influencing that transition. It highlights: (1) farmers’ development of a systemic and temporal approach to this transition, and the impacts that the different levels of the system have on one another; and (2) methodological issues related to the development of long-term ergonomic actions to support navigation and copying within the complexity of sustainable transition.

Keywords:

• Sustainable development
• agriculture
• transition
• systemic approach
• long-term ergonomic actions

Acknowledgments

This article is based on PhD research funded by the CNAM-Abbé Grégoire doctoral school, which the authors would like to thank. They also thank INRA UMR LISIS and the Institut Francilien Research Innovation Society for the financial support to the first author, as well as Farmer N and the CIVAM facilitator who participated in the research, and Liz Carey Libbrecht for language editing the English version of this paper. The authors also thank TRANSAE project members who helped advance this research, as well as the members of the Institute for Design in Agrifood Systems. Finally, the authors thank the three anonymous reviewers for their stimulating comments and their helpful advice that were key to improving this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 12th Triennial Congress of the International Association of Ergonomics (IEA), Toronto, 1994

2 Two terms are used, often indifferently: sustainability and sustainable development. Thatcher and Yeow (2016, 1) explain that “sustainability essentially means ‘capable of being upheld’ or supported indefinitely (Johnston et al. 2007), whereas sustainable development refers specifically to (human) development being upheld, supported or sustained.” For an in-depth understanding with a systems perspective, see Gallopín (2003).

3 A type of animal feeding based on the use of free-feeding grasslands.