Jean-Pierre Deffontaines

Système agraire et qualité de l'eau. Efficacité d'un concept et construction négociée d'une recherche

Abstract The authors of this article present and analyse the overall approach used in an interdisciplinary research programme for which they were responsible. The programme was initiated by the following question, put forward by an important industrial company producing mineral water, Societe Vittel: ‘What changes are required concerning the farming activity used on the site, and under what conditions, in order to reduce the rate of nitrates found beneath the roots of cultivated plants and grassland, and to ensure that this rate remains beneath the limit of 10 mg per litre?’ This led them to question the relevance and the limits of the agrarian system concept, as the concept on which an interdisciplinary approach was based. In the first part, the authors present the merging that occurred within this research programme of the agrarian system concept with that of sustainable development and with the systems approach. Drawing on past experience with this concept and several previous research projects, they focus on two perspectives. First, an agrarian system is a complex reality which links on a local level the people involved, the activities and a land area undergoing development. The second perspective underlines the gradual elaboration of the agrarian system; how it is formed by those involved. Keeping these two points of view in mind, an agrarian system model is presented here, which served as the basis for organising and conducting the research programme. Once the programme objectives had been discussed and the scientific structure established, the decision was made to conduct the research in a reactive way according to its own development and the evolution of the agrarian system being formed. This option was facilitated by the existence of a ‘mediator’ between the research team and the other players within the agrarian system. The authors propose the notion of ‘negotiated research’ to describe this approach. This same agrarian system model is used by the authors to make a critical analysis of the research programme itself; it serves as an analyser for controversial points. The water catchment area as an emerging spatial entity, or the difference in the points of view held by the researchers and the company as to the limits and subdivisions of the area needing protection are the two controversial points taken as examples. The evolution of local relationships between the people involved played a crucial role in solving the problem of water quality, and thus in building the agrarian system, through the development of learning processes by the different players: the industrial company, the farmers and the researchers. In short, in order to fulfil the two conditions required for sustainable development, i.e. first the creation of negotiation and consultation opportunities, and second the creation of knowledge, reference to the agrarian system concept appears relevant. The authors consider, as shown by the Vittel research programme, that constant shuttling between the two perspectives of the agrarian system concept has great potential in addressing the new challenges and the new players involved in the evolution of rural areas.

Pour une approche sociotechnique de la « gestion de la qualité de l'eaupar l'agriculture

Abstract Agricultural research is under increasing pressure to deal with complex issues involving varying degrees of uncertainty and urgency. Such is in particular the case for environmental issues, product quality and conservation of natural resources. To address such issues, research needs to adopt a new approach to scientific investigation and get more extensively involved in real-life on-site situations. These issues consist of a mix of technical, social and organisational dimensions which need to be articulated. This can be achieved within the framework of a ‘socio-technical’ problematic. How do researchers stand in relation to this problematic? How is research organised to address the problematic? To what extent do researchers need to engage in the change processes which they analyse and what are the consequences of such an engagement? The authors have attempted to draw some guidelines for the management and evaluation of interdisciplinary research on environmental issues in agriculture from the analysis of four research projects on water quality and farming practices. They propose an analytical framework based on a model designed to investigate a socio-technical innovation process. The framework takes into consideration the context in which the environmental question has emerged, the reformulating of the question into a research problematic, the type of engagement of the actors and the way the research is operated (team composition, relations with the actors). Three types of results are also considered : knowledge produced, change in farming practices and effects on the natural and social systems. Developing a socio-technical problematic has shown itself to be a necessity in defining new farming practices and proposing individual as well as collective conditions for their implementation. Choosing this type of problematic entails several provisions, in particular the need to articulate laboratory and field investigations, to negotiate the research design with the actors, and to steer the research process by constantly taking into account achievements, failures and opportunities.

L'observation visuelle. Regards croisés d'un agronome et d'un géographe

C’est un paradoxe de la vision d’etre a la fois source d’echange et regard individuel et unique. Il y a en effet une infinite de regards sur un meme objet, liee a l’histoire de chaque regardant : « La vision est la rencontre, comme a un carrefour, de tous les aspects de l’etre1. » L’observation mobilise, d’une maniere particuliere, la vision. Elle est un regard associe a une intention. Sans doute est-ce a cause de ce paradoxe que l’observation visuelle a eu du mal a se faire reconnaitre comme moyen d’investigation scientifique. Au milieu du XXe siecle, cependant, a l’instar de l’experience, l’observation visuelle acquiert un statut scientifique. On s’eloigne d’une exclusive accordee au modele experimental de Claude Bernard. Dans le champ de l’agronomie, en particulier, la reference a la definition proposee par S. Henin, celle d’« une ecologie appliquee a la production de peuplements vegetaux et a l’amenagement du territoire », revient a admettre que tout ne se mesure pas, ne s’experimente pas, et que les approches qualitatives et globales ont leur place dans l’acquisition des connaissances, dans l’elaboration de diagnostics, voire dans la modelisation des processus en cause. Dans l’introduction de l’ouvrage Le Profil cultural2, on note les propos suivants : « En definitive nous avons ete conduits a abandonner l’attitude trop stricte du physicien qui conduit