Agroecological transitions, between determinist and open-ended visions

This book explores relationships to change in agroecological transitions, based on two contrasting and ideal-typical stances, the determinist perspective and the open-ended perspective. at different scales such as agricultural systems, food systems, policy instruments..., thus reinforcing the potential diversity of transition pathways.

Debates around agroecology most often focus on the depth and radicality of the change and relate to different visions of agroecology, which tends to eclipse the ontological relationships of actors (or researchers) to the very 'change process' itself. This book is an endeavor to explicate relationships to change in agroecological transitions, referring to two contrasting and ideal-typical ontological relationships to change, the determinist perspective and the open-ended perspective. These conceptions or interpretations of the change process are based respectively on whether objectives and means are predetermined, or defi ned during the change process and while accounting for the uncertainty and complexity of mechanisms of change as well as for the diversity of actors'visions. Many diverse cases of agroecological transitions are discussed in this book, in order to highlight the fact that these perspectives are not always exclusive in transition process but that they can be articulated successively or combined complementarily, in different ways thus reinforcing the potential diversity of transition pathways.

Auteur

Claire Lamine is sociologist and research director at INRAE. She develops interdisciplinary approaches to agroecological transitions at the scale of agri-food systems and studies the processes of institutionalisation of agroecology in France and Brazil.

Danièle Magda is an ecologist and research director at INRAE. She worked on agroecological practices learning in farming systems and now develops interdisciplinary research on the diversity of visions on ecologisation and of relationships to nature in the transition of agrifood systems.

Marta Rivera-Ferre is Research Professor at INGENIO (the Spanish National Research Council) and UPV. She focuses her research on agroecology and food sovereignty as strategies to increase the sustainability of food systems, as well as in the place of feminists and commons theories in agri-food research.

Terry Marsden is Emeritus Professor at the School of Geography and Planning and the Sustainable Places Research Institute at Cardiff University. He has worked extensively in the fields of rural development, agri-food studies and sustainability.

Contenu

List of contributors - Acknowledgements - Foreword - Andy Stirling: Preface: Branching pathways in agroecological transformations - Danièle Magda, Claire Lamine, Terry Marsden, MartaRivera- Ferre: Introduction: Taking into account the ontological relationship to change in agroecological transitions - Mireille Navarrete, Hélène Brives, Maxime Catalogna, Amélie Lefèvre, Sylvaine Simon: Intertwining deterministic and open- ended perspectives in the experimentation of agroecological production systems: A challenge for agronomy researchers - Sophie Tabouret, Claire Lamine, FrançoisHochereau: Plant breeding for agroecology: A sociological analysis of the co- creation of varieties and the collectives involved - Marianne Hubeau, MartinaTuscano, Fabienne Barataud, PatriziaPugliese: Agroecological transitions at the scale of territorial agri- food systems - Claire Lamine, ClaudiaSchmitt, Juliano Palm, Floriane Derbez, Paulo Petersen: How policy instruments may favour an articulation between open ended and deterministic perspectives to support agroecological transitions? Insights from a franco- brazilian comparison - Moacir Darolt, Juliette Anglade, Pascale Moity- Maïzi, Claire Lamine, Florette Rengard, VanessaIceri, Amélie Genay, Cristian Celis: Teaching, training and learning for the agroecology transition: A French- Brazilian perspective - MarcBarbier, SarahLumbroso, JessicaThomas, Sébastien Treyer: The manufacture of futures and the agroecological transition. Deciphering pathways for sustainability transition in France - Vincent Thénard, GillesMartel, Jean- Philippe Choisis, Timothée Petit, Sébastien Couvreur, OliviaFontaine, MarcMoraine: How access and dynamics in the use of territorial resources shape agroecological transitions in crop- livestock systems: Learnings and perspectives - Charles- Henri Moulin, LauraEtienne, Magali Jouven, JacquesLasseur, Martine Napoléone, Marie- Odile Nozières- Petit, EricVall, Arielle Vidal: The dynamics of agropastoral activities with regard to the agroecological transition - Pierre M. Stassart, Antoinette M. Dumont, Corentin Hecquet, Stephanie Klaedtke, Camille Lacombe, Matthieu de Nanteuil: What models of justice for the agroecological transition? The normative backdrops of the transition - DivyaSharmaand BarbaraVan Dyck: Thinking through the lens of the other: Translocal agroecology conversations - Michael Bell and Stéphane Bellon: The rhetorics of agroecology: Positions, trajectories, strategies - Postface.