Christophe Albaladejo

Learning in Agriculture: Rural Development Agents in France Caught between a Job Identity and a Professional Identity

Abstract This paper is an interpretation by researchers of oral and written accounts of ten development agents who have participated in various seminars and discussions since 2001, organized by researchers of INRA and of the University of Toulouse. According to the transcripts of lectures, discussions and articles written by development agents, it seems that the ten development agents analysed dealt with three major themes, all of which concern the new skills required by rural development actors. The first of these concerns social learning in general and, in particular, the complex interactions between public policies, as they are applied through decrees, and new local initiatives. The second theme concerns learning processes at work in rural development professions and new skills required by development agents. Finally, the third theme deals with the sensitive relationship between learning by development agents and learning by local communities or by organizations with which, or for whom, these agents work.

El productor silencioso: destino del gran actor de la modernización de los años 1960-70 en la actual copresencia de agriculturas de la región pampeana argentina // The silent farmer: destiny of the great actor of the modernization of the years 1960–70 in the current copresence of agricultures in the Argentina Pampa

espanolEn la region pampeana argentina, pese a las declaraciones de muchos actores y afirmaciones en la literatura, estimamos que el modelo de agricultura del agribusiness representado por los “nuevos productores” de la soja no puede ser considerado como una profundizacion del modelo de modernizacion anterior, de los anos 1960-70, sino que debe ser entendido como un proceso nuevo en ruptura con dicha modernizacion. ?Cual es entonces el destino de los actores que eran la base del modelo de modernizacion anterior y en particular del productor moderno convencional? Surgio paralelamente al agribusiness, y desde los anos 2000, un nuevo sujeto social en lo rural argentino: el “productor familiar”. Pero ninguno de los dos sujetos, agricultor familiar y agribusiness, representa lo esencial del productor “moderno” autonomo que estuvo en el centro de la modernizacion “clasica” de los anos 1960-70. En este trabajo mostramos el caracter heuristico de centrar el foco de la atencion sobre el destino de la base social de la modernizacion anterior, y la importancia oculta de su rol actual en los territorios y el agro, pese a su repentina desaparicion de los discursos y de las representaciones sociales, asi como de las politicas publicas. EnglishIn the Argentine Pampas region, despite the stateme nts of many actors and sta- tements in the literature, we estimate that the agr icultural model of agribusiness represented by the «new soy farmers» cannot be considered as a deepening of the previous model of modernization, of 1960–70, but it should be treated as a new process breaking with such modernization. What then is the fate of the actors who were the basis of previous moder- nization model and in particular the conventional modern producer? It emerged parallel to agribusiness, and since 2000, a new social subject in rural Argentina: the family farmer. But none of the two social actors —family farmers and agribusiness manager— represent the essence of the «modern producer» who was at the center of the «classic» modernization of 1960–70. In this paper, we demonstrate how heuristic is to place the focus of attention on the fate of the social base of the previous modernization, and the hidden importance of his current role in the territories and the agriculture, despite the sudden disappearance of the speeches of agricultural sector and of social representations and public policies