Les appuis de l’action collective mobilisés dans les transitions agroécologiques. Enseignements de l’analyse de cinq collectifs d’agriculteurs en Rhône-Alpes.

Collective action and cooperation between actors having a diversity of knowledge and practices can help to create and share new visions, values and resources supporting agroecological transitions. During the last years, diverse public programs have been set up in order to encourage collective initiatives supporting agroecological transitions. However, the coordination of people who are not used to work together is not always obvious. This article aims to identify the conditions of emergence of these collective actions and the modes of coordination supporting agroecological transitions. Based on a comprehensive analysis of five groups of farmers, we show that collective action supporting agroecological transitions relies on the ability of using and arranging different kind of “supports”. These supports are: relationships, technical material, knowledge resources, public subsidies and group facilitators. Then, agroecological transitions rely on specific and situated arrangements of these supports along an incremental process combining both planned and emerging activities resulting from opportunities or constraints. Our results challenge the established planned management of collective action and point out how the dynamics of emergence can play a role to favor its durability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]