• Energy Research

Transformative changes in agriculture at multiple scales are needed to ensure sustainability, i.e. achieving food security while fostering social justice and environmental integrity. These transformations go beyond technological fixes and require fundamental changes in cognitive, relational, structural and functional aspects of agricultural systems. However, research on agricultural transformations fails to engage deeply with underlying social aspects such as differing perceptions of sustainability, uncertainties and ambiguities, politics of knowledge, power imbalances and deficits in democracy. In this paper, we suggest that conflict is one manifestation of such underlying social aspects. We present an original conceptualization and analytical framework, wherein conflict is recognized as an important motor for redistribution of power and leverage for social learning that—if addressed through a conflict transformation process—could potentially create a step-change in agricultural transformation towards greater sustainability. Our analysis, building on an extensive literature review and empirical case studies from around the world, suggests a novel approach to guide future transdisciplinary research that can support agricultural transformations towards sustainability.

Abstract In current scientific and political discourses there is common agreement that the future of Alpine agriculture is a challenge not only for farmers, but also for society at large. What remains unclear is the question of how to adapt agriculture towards sustainable development of the Alpine territory in a manner that takes sufficient account of local diversity. We propose to treat agriculture and rural development as a matter of local concern, starting with a definition of sustainable agriculture drawn up by local stakeholders. Based on a 3-year experiment, we examine the capacity of local people to take joint action to contribute in a consistent way to rural development and to sustainable agriculture. We discuss the assets and limitations of local projects based on multi-stakeholder participation, ie in relation to their capacity to initiate closer links between farmers and other stakeholders and renew the contribution of agriculture to rural development. Our paper highlights 2 main points: first,...

AbstractMeteorological hazards can lead farmers to resort to strategies such as weather modifications. In this paper, we study how the use of such strategies, in this case silver iodide ground generators aimed at protecting vineyards from hail, caused a conflict between farmers (wine producers and cattle breeders) in Burgundy, France. The conflict emerged as the installation of these generators coincided with 3 years of severe droughts (2018, 2019 and 2020), which incurred additional expenses and organisational difficulties for local cattle breeders and led them to suspect a potential link between the generators and the droughts. We followed a transdisciplinary research approach, based on local stakeholder input and their need to mitigate the negative impacts of the conflict. Based on this approach, we studied the links between generator use and precipitation, and carried out in-depth interviews to study farmers’ experiences of climate, generators and conflicts in the region. Whilst the climatic analysis shows no local or regional effects of the generators on precipitation volumes, the sociological study highlights the vulnerability of farmers to successive droughts, found to be part of a wider pattern of climate change based on water balance variables (temperature, precipitation, evapotranspiration potential, soil wetness index) over a long period (1959–2020). Our results suggest that the use of technical solutions to mitigate meteorological hazards, within a broader context of climate engineering, can lead to conflicts at the regional level, and that the climate change challenge in the context of agriculture requires a focus on wider social issues including vulnerability.

Our paper is a reflexive return on an interdisciplinary and participative research program on climate change and its impacts in Burgundy. This work involved the joint participation of researchers in social sciences and in climatology and is also based on exchanges with stakeholders of water resources. To gain knowledge on past climate, scientists use proxies such as tree rings, CO2 levels in ice, dates of grape harvest, etc. We suggest that proxies may find a new place in knowledge construction on current climate change. Climate science can discover in other disciplines such as ecology evidence of recent changes, which represent proxies of climate change. Regular notes on changes recorded by citizens in their daily life environment are also a rich source of proxy indices on climate change; they contribute to knowledge on daily life and practice. Empirical and scientific knowledge, usually reputed to be wide apart, converge on the fact that climate is mainly appraised by proxy indicators. We suggest that connecting knowledges at a local scale will help give insight into climate change. To closely associate the global climate model to local knowledge and real-life experiences is a lever to adapt locally to climate change. L’article propose un retour réflexif sur une recherche interdisciplinaire et participative relative au changement climatique et à ses impacts en Bourgogne. Dans une nouvelle perspective, les proxys, indices laissés par le climat, pourraient avoir une place dans la construction des connaissances quant aux changements en cours. Les proxys peuvent venir de disciplines comme l’écologie ou des observations ordinaires d’acteurs et de citoyens. Savoirs du quotidien et de la pratique sont riches d’indices sur les changements de l’environnement à relier aux modifications du climat. Savoirs scientifiques et savoirs ordinaires, présentés comme distants, se rejoignent sur le fait que le changement climatique se saisit principalement par des intermédiaires, « par procuration ». Rapprocher le modèle du climat planétaire de savoirs locaux et d’expériences vécues est un levier pour s’adapter localement au changement climatique.

Comment des collectifs locaux de gouvernance de l’eau peuvent-ils s’approprier les questions d’adaptation à une ressource perturbée par le changement climatique ? Des « ateliers du climat », organisés sur deux territoires en Bourgogne ont été observés. Se référant aux méthodes de « design territorial », ils ont réuni acteurs locaux et chercheurs afin d’initier une réflexion collective sur l’adaptation de la gestion de l’eau aux effets du changement climatique. Ils ont représenté un exercice de participation décalé par rapport aux Commissions Locales de l’Eau qui constituent le cadre institutionnel de la gouvernance locale de l’eau. L’adoption d’un mode interprétatif a permis une circulation et une hybridation des savoirs entre scientifiques et profanes. Cette recherche-action apporte des enseignements sur les conditions du dialogue entre scientifiques et acteurs, l’intérêt des méthodes de design territorial pour traiter des incertitudes et sur les conceptions de l’adaptation de la gestion de l’eau. How can local collectives for water governance appropriate the issues of adaptation to water resources modified by climate change? The “Climate workshops” held on two territories in Burgundy were observed. Referring to the methods of «territorial design», they gathered local actors and researchers to introduce a collective debate on the adaptation of the water management according to the climate change effects. They represented an unusual participation time, compared to Local Water Commissions which are, in France, the institutional framework of the local water governance. The adoption of an interpretative mode allowed knowledge circulation and hybridization between scientists and local stakeholders. This action-research provides lessons on ways of establishing a dialogue among scientists and non-scientists, the implementation of territorial design methods to deal with uncertainty and a better understanding of representations of adaptation for water management.

Que signifie travailler en agriculture à l’heure du changement climatique ? À partir d’une enquête menée en Saône-et-Loire auprès d’éleveurs bovins allaitants et laitiers en système extensif, nous montrons les impacts matériels, économiques, humains et sociaux de quatre sécheresses estivales successives sur le travail. Le travail en agriculture est déjà particulièrement prenant et source de mal-être. La raréfaction des ressources provoquées par les sécheresses entraîne une surcharge de travail et des pertes économiques, avec peu de perspectives sinon de rendre encore plus extensif le système d’élevage ou d’arrêter le métier. Le vécu du métier devient difficile avec le sentiment de ne pouvoir bien s’occuper de leurs bêtes et d’être empêché de bien faire leur travail. Une lassitude combinée à un manque de reconnaissance du métier conduisent à une détresse professionnelle et humaine. Les éleveurs se trouvent être dans une précarité au sens où le changement climatique peut révoquer leur métier. Ils sont bousculés dans leur attachement au lieu, avec un sentiment de perte des ressources naturelles autrefois plus stables. A la croisée des littératures sur l’adaptation au changement climatique et sur le travail, les transformations du métier d’éleveur méritent d’être davantage explorées pour aller vers davantage de résilience. What is it really like to work in agriculture in a changing climate? Based on interviews in Saône-et-Loire with farmers with a system based on extensive production, we highlight the material, economic, human and social impacts of repeated summer droughts on their work. Cattle breeding and dairy farming are known to be a particularly demanding form of agricultural work that can alter well-being. The recurrence of droughts and natural resources scarcity induced an overload of work and economic losses, without job futures except to further extensify the production. Breeders have the feeling of not doing their work properly. Weariness combined with a lack of recognition of the profession leads to professional and human distress. Cattle breeders find themselves in an environmental precarity due to their dependence on environmental changes. Their attachment to place is affected, with a feeling of loss of natural resources that were once more stable. At the crossroads of the literature on adaptation to climate change and the literature on work, the transformations in the farming profession deserve to be explored further in order to move towards greater resilience.