In a context of multiple crises, dairy farmers struggle to receive a fair remuneration for their work. This situation led to the creation of fair milk projects in Europe. But fair trade projects often suffer from ambiguous interpretations that place them simultaneously in and against the market. This study focuses on a Belgian milk label in order to analyse how dairy farmers developed a particular strategy to create their own fair milk. Based on semi-structured interviews and using the multi-level perspective, we propose that articulating the concepts of lock-ins, bricolage and ambiguity enables us to analyse the potential of this innovation for the transition of the Belgian dairy system. The study shows that fairness is often a matter of divergent interpretations, and its final actualisation is the product of emergent and negotiated relations. By using bricolage practices, the stakeholders reinforced their capacity to gain market power and act within the system they want to change. within the fair trade movement 'wish to use market mechanisms as a tool to increase their social impact, but at the same time promote a political project that questions the functioning of the market'. It thus appears that fairness is not a norm that can be realised in a self-evident manner: it is necessary to make a series of adjustments ('bricolage') to give it concrete effect, but this generates a tension between the divergent interpretations of the project. These adjustments are always specific: they vary according to the socio-historical context and the socio-technical network in which the project takes place.This article aims to contribute to the reflection around this tension, which frequently appears in fair trade. The article will juxtapose this reflection with the question of the transition to sustainable agro-food systems. Using the tools of the multi-level perspective (MLP), we will analyse how Belgian farmers have developed a distinctive strategy in order to create their own brand of fair trade milk (Fairebel) as a response to the milk crisis of 2009. The analysis demonstrates how the tension was created in the particular context of the dairy sector, which is characterised by a high degree of 'lock-in', which forced the farmers to use bricolage to realise their project. This bricolage is the source of the tension in which the project finds itself: at once 'in' and 'against' the market; at once in conflict and continuity with the system. We demonstrate how this tension generates an ambiguity, in the sense that the interpretation depends on the perspective taken.The case is interesting because of the manner in which the stakeholders of the fair milk project responded to the ambiguity by showing their commitment to letting one interpretation of the project (political commitment) prevail over another (market expedience). In doing so, they were able to maintain their project despite the tension. This article contributes to the reflection about the transition of the agro-food system; it does so by taking into account the fact th...
Following a controversy over the construction of a waste incinerator in the Fos-sur-Mer industrial area (France), residents pointed to the lack of knowledge of the industry’s cumulative impact on their health and environment. Under pressure, some of their elected representatives supported the creation of an independent scientific organization, the Ecocitizen Institute for Pollution Awareness ( Institut écocitoyen pour la connaissance des pollutions [IECP]). Its objective was to conduct localized scientific research on the effects of pollution and to lobby the administration to change its regulatory practices. This paper examines the efforts made to ensure that the “undone science” gets done, by focusing on the specificities of this industrialized site. We look at a participatory biomonitoring experiment that aimed to document pollution in the Gulf of Fos where scientists working for the IECP accepted anglers’ requests and switched from an acknowledged sentinel species to another species. We tell the many stories that were shared with us about how conger qualified as a more suitable “cosmopolitical fish” in the study of pollution. Elaborating on actor–network theory and multispecies ethnographies, we discuss the appropriateness of congers as the newly appointed sentinel species. We argue that this demonstrates the importance of the “ecology of relations” in maintaining the livability of the area.
a b s t r a c tThis paper proposes a new way for sociology, through both methodology and theory, to understand the reality of social groups and their "minority practices." It is based on an experiment that concerns a very specific category of agriculturalists called "pluriactive" stock farmers. These stock farmers, who engage in raising livestock part-time alongside another full-time job, form a minority category within the agricultural profession.We address the question of how to analyze and represent the practices of this kind of "social" group or category through participatory filmmaking. Our research shows that beyond the collaborative production and screening of the film done in close cooperation with the stock farmers themselves, a second unexpected dynamic emerged around the sequences that were cut in the final editing round. These cut sequences reveal hesitations and disagreements among the breeders about their own practices in relation to their work and to animal welfare. These hesitations are not considered weaknesses, but rather as proof of the emergence of this group of stock farmers as "practitioners". In the realm of intervention research, the participatory film-making process is attractive because it enables the farmers to raise new questions on their own, discuss them, and eventually resolve them, while also encouraging the researchers to identify the conditions that must be met in order to achieve this fragile linkage. This process and its outcomes force us to revisit the theoretical question of what constitutes a pragmatic definition of a "practice."
Through the issue of pesticide management in Belgium, this article offers an empirical and conceptual grasp on what Ulrich Beck called the second-order reflexive modernity; that which is exercised among citizens when they are confronted with threatening and uncertain situations. To achieve this, we use two case studies of two public policy instruments, which we offer to the public for discussion: food product labelling, and the modelling of toxic effects linked to pesticide use. To this end, we organised two focus groups designed to encourage discussion, composed of citizens/practitioners. The results obtained plead in favour of a collective deconstruction-reconstruction of these tools and can lead to what we propose calling a -pragmatic collective interest.‖ This -pragmatic collective interest‖ can take the form of a new set-up or new associations that enable the coexistence of conflicting propositions and points of view, and a suspension of efforts to hierarchize causes and required solutions.
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