Addressing the diversity of visions of ecologization in research and in support to agroecological transitions

ABSTRACT

Agroecology is increasingly recognized as a relevant framework for envisioning the transition of agriculture and food systems, but is often tackled in a dualistic perspective opposing strong or radical visions of agroecology to weak or incremental ones. This article is based on a collective, reflexive and comparative analysis of eight research projects dealing with agroecological transitions at the scale of farming systems and agrifood systems. Each project brought together a diversity of actors having different visions of ecologization. The aim of this article is to describe how and with what benefits this diversity of visions was addressed in the projects. We show that taking into account the diversity of visions is necessary for understanding agroecological transitions, and that beyond this, sharing this diversity among the concerned actors is necessary for accompanying them in an inclusive way and, under certain conditions, enrich transition pathways. We also show the need to adopt analytical approaches to characterize the visions along with participatory action-research approaches allowing to share them and support transitions. Finally, the collective and reflexive process we carried out for this article also enabled the researchers to situate their projects and themselves with regard to their role in the agro-ecological transitions.

KEYWORDS:

• Action-research
• system co-design
• organic farming
• transition pathways
• stakeholders perspectives

Acknowledgments

We thank our colleagues from the Ecodeveloppement research unit for their comments and Pedro Lopez-Merino ([email protected]) for the translation. We also thank the ECOSYAT project funded by INRAE’s metaprogram METABIO and all the stakeholders associated with the projects presented in the case studies.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. A recent French farmer-led movement called “Maraîchage sur Sol Vivant (MSV)” that gathers market gardeners to develop agroecological cropping practices that place soil at heart of their cropping systems.

2. Translator’s note: in French, Groupement d’intérêt économique et environnemental.

3. a call for proposals, one of the first public action instruments of the agroecological policy launched in France in 2012, designed as an exploratory measure in view of the launch of the aforementioned GIEEs, introduced by law in France in 2014

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Agence de l’Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l’Energie (ADEME); Fondation de France; Ministère de l’Agriculture et de l’Alimentation [Obs-TAE]; INRAE metaprogram METABIO [ECOSYAT]; INRAE, metaprogram METABIO département ACT, INRAE ERA-Net CORE Organic Plus [618107]; Région PACA, France [PEI-DEPASSE].