Transitioning toward more sustainable agricultural development paths requires extensive change and not simply marginal technical adjustments, as suggested by a strong conception of agroecology. To deal with transition, we believe that agroecology can be enriched by a deep analysis of sustainability transition frameworks and, conversely, that preexisting theories can be questioned in light of the specificities of agroecological transitions (AET). We first examine some of the main sustainability transition frameworks (resilience of social-ecological systems, institutional analysis and development of social-ecological systems, and socio-technical transition). We identify their ontologies to question their ability to be combined without deep adjustments. In a second step, we analyze how these frameworks have been used and questioned by researchers from the life sciences or social sciences in four AET studies. We find that each framework is relevant in its systemic and dynamic approach to change, but also that there are limits concerning the balance between the various dimensions. The scales and processes linked to AET must be taken into account, as well as the way to jointly consider ecological, socioeconomic, and technological aspects. Moreover, it is clear that problems in dealing with agency are common to these approaches, which influences the way to model change. More broadly, sustainability transition frameworks need to account better for ecological and technological materialities and processes, the importance of emergent organizations in singular situations, and learning processes and the diversity of knowledge dynamics. Doing so is challenging because it requires regrounding theories in empirical observations as well as questioning disciplinary frontiers and ontologies.

This article analyses the recent development by some large retailers in France of dedicated Quality Supply Chains for their food products. The major contractual innovation rests on the design of tripartite contracts between a retailer, agro-food firms and farmers' associations. In contrast to mainstream contract literature, we demonstrate that contract adaptations may reflect a mutual learning process between contractors: why do transactors write explicit contracts that they know cannot be court enforced? Empirical data are based on the joint analysis of a full set of contracts between one retailer and all its beef suppliers, and their diachronic evolution before and after the BSE crisis (the period 1993-2000). Contract design and organisational changes at the retailer level are shown to be strongly interrelated.

[fre] Une revue de la littérature permet de dégager quatre grandes façons de concevoir et modéliser l'exploitation. Elles constituent une base large pour étudier la transformation des manières de produire. Néanmoins, l'analyse de trois programmes de recherche montre qu'il est nécessaire de mobiliser autrement ces modèles pour tenir compte des nouvelles questions que soulève le débat sur la multifonctionnalité de l'agriculture. [eng] Multifunctionality of agriculture and farm models - A literature reviews allows to identify four major ways of conceiving and modelling the farm. They représenta wide basis for studying changes in agricultural production. However, the analysis of three research programmes shows the need for adaptations in these models to address the new issues arising in the recent debates on the multifunc- tionality of agriculture.

In this article, we expand the analytical and theoretical foundations of the study of knowledge commons in the context of more classical agrarian commons, such as seed commons. We show that it is possible to overcome a number of criticisms of earlier work by Ostrom (Governing the commons. The evolution of institutions for collective action, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1990) on natural commons and its excludability/rivalry matrix in addressing the inclusive social practices of "commoning", defined as a way of living and acting for the preservation of the commons. Our empirical analysis emphasizes, using the most recent advances in the IAD/SES framework, the distributed and collaborative knowledge governance in a French peasant seed network as a key driver for reintroducing cultivated agrobiodiversity and on-farm seed conservation of ancient and landrace varieties. These inclusive peasant seed groups developed alternative peer-to-peer models of collaborative peasant-led community-based breeding and grassroots innovations in the search for more resilient population varieties. Our results highlight the various models of collective action within the network and discuss the organizational tradeoffs of opting out of peasant seed activities and recreating a shared collective knowledge base on the benefits of restoring cultivated agrobiodiversity. It helps us better understand how modern peasant seed groups function as epistemic communities which contributes to envisioning alternative agricultural systems.

From a New Institutional Economics (NIE) perspective, standards are acknowledged to play a central role in building efficient market infrastructure by defining what is exchanged and reducing the level of transaction and measurement costs. Nevertheless, only a few prior NIE studies have considered standard-setting activities as coordination and governance issuesper se. This article aims to fill this gap by adapting and extending the classical Williamsonian analytical framework to the governance of standard-setting institutions. This analysis is substantiated by empirical data on global private standards in the agricultural sector. Our results highlight the importance of standard selection and the limits to current harmonisation as regards institutional failure to define alternative multilateral governance mechanisms at the international level.

[fre] La politique de la qualité mise en place en France, et plus récemment par l'Union Européenne, offre aux acteurs du secteur agro-alimentaire des dispositifs juridiques et institutionnels leur permettant de valoriser une réputation collective et de «vendre du territoire» par la différenciation de leurs produits. La principale innovation de ce système est de codifier les dénominations d'origine pour en faire des signaux de qualité crédibles. L'article analyse d'abord les facteurs de succès de cette politique. Ensuite, il met en évidence les perspectives de cette politique dans le contexte international, en soulignant les obstacles que va devoir affronter la réglementation européenne et les concurrences nouvelles que vont subir les dénominations d'origine. [eng] Quality policy in the agro-food sector in global economy - Quality policy becomes a central issue for agro-food sector. Distinctive regulatory strategies have been followed in France, and more recently in the European Union, in order to promote quality differentiation and consumer information about food products. We show that these strategies are all based on the two following rules, i. e the promotion of producer's collective reputation and the certification of «localized production systems». The main innovation introduced by these institutional arrangements is then to define the origin of products as a credible quality signal. The aim of this article is, first to characterize the main institutional factors that may explain the economic success met by this policy. Second, futures opportunities for their extension at the international level are emphasised, focusing more precisely on the possible hurdles they will have to overcome.

Classification JEL : K12 D23 D74 L14 Q13Contract enforcement is acknowledged as a major issue in Law and in Economics. Contrasting substitution and complementary perspectives with respect to the role of private vs. public enforcement institutions, this article analyses how contract law can support private institutions, and enhance economic efficiency. With multilateral agreements at stake, self-regulation and reputation mechanisms at the core of private ordering have limitations that collective organizations backed by the Law help to overcome. The analysis is substantiated by empirical data from the cattle industry. Our results suggest the need for a broader approach to contract regulation by legal scholars and antitrust-authorities

Cacao cultivation is rapidly increasing in Latin America under the influence of public policies and external markets. In Ecuador, the cultivated surface of high quality cacao trees has doubled in the last 50 years, creating great expectations in neighboring countries. Here, we investigated the social-ecological sustainability of cacao-based agroforestry systems in four rural Amazonian highlands communities in eastern Ecuador, close to the region where cacao was once domesticated. Kichwa- and Shuar-speaking groups were interviewed by adapting Ostrom’s institutional diagnostic framework for social-ecological systems. Through a set of specifically created indicator variables, we identified key interactions and outcomes to understand the fragility and the sustainability of those communities. The studied communities were fairly young, with land rights secured less than 30 years ago in most cases. Per-family surfaces were very restricted (typically one hectare) and plots were divided between cash producing crops and their own home food. The small production per household goes through a precarious commercialization by both intermediaries and cooperatives, making the cacao bean production merely sufficient for pocket money. Ties with specialist producers in one community close to the capital has promoted the use of native cacao lines. Elsewhere, improved varieties of high productivity are planted along native trees being commercialized indistinctly. The continuity of these communities currently depend on a reorganization of their demography with parts of the population working elsewhere, as cacao bean production alone will continue to be insufficient, and will compete with their food self-sufficiency.