Marc Barbier

Learning in European agricultural and rural networks: building a systemic research agenda

Six key themes that emerged from the European Union (EU) funded LEARNing project designed to develop and test a systemic approach to research practice are reported. The focus was on the learning and knowing processes experienced by individuals, groups and institutions that emerges from collective action and results in changes in practices or in the potential to change practices of those involved. The authors, drawn by the idea that the key to understanding knowledge is to be found in ‘how we know what we know’, or, in other words, in the processes of ‘learning and knowing’ present these themes: processes, theory, evaluation, institutionalisation and social and professional practice as a basis for further innovation in the conduct of R&D and as a basis for future capability-building of researchers.

Institutional entrepreneurship and techniques of inclusiveness in the creation of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

This article contributes to understanding the conditions of social-ecological change by focusing on the agency of individuals in the pathways to institutionalization. Drawing on the case of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), it addresses institutional entrepreneurship in an emerging environmental science-policy institution (ESPI) at a global scale. Drawing on ethnographic observations, semistructured interviews, and document analysis, we propose a detailed chronology of the genesis of the IPBES before focusing on the final phase of the negotiations toward the creation of the institution. We analyze the techniques and skills deployed by the chairman during the conference to handle the tensions at play both to prevent participants from deserting the negotiations arena and to prevent a lack of inclusiveness from discrediting the future institution. We stress that creating a new global environmental institution requires the situated exercise of an art of “having everybody on board” through techniques of inclusiveness that we characterize. Our results emphazise the major challenge of handling the fragmentation and plasticity of the groups of interest involved in the institutionalization process, thus adding to the theory of transformative agency of institutional entrepreneurs. Although inclusiveness might remain partly unattainable, such techniques of inclusiveness appear to be a major condition of the legitimacy and success of the institutionalization of a new global ESPI. Our results also add to the literature on boundary making within ESPIs by emphasizing the multiplicity and plasticity of the groups actually at stake.

‘I am an Intensive Guy’: The Possibility and Conditions of Reconciliation Through the Ecological Intensification Framework

The need for better conciliation between food production and environmental protection calls for new conceptual approaches in agronomy. Ecological intensification (EI) is one of the most encouraging and successful conceptual frameworks for designing more sustainable agricultural systems, though relying upon semantic ambivalences and epistemic tensions. This article discusses abilities and limits of the EI framework in the context of strong social and environmental pressure for agricultural transition. The purpose is thus to put EI at stake in the light of the results of an interdisciplinary and participatory research project that explicitly adopted EI goals in livestock semi-industrialized farming systems. Is it possible to maintain livestock production systems that are simultaneously productive, sustainable, and viable and have low nitrate emissions in vulnerable coastal areas? If so, how do local stakeholders use these approaches? The main steps of the innovation process are described. The effects of political and social dynamics on the continuity of the transition process are analyzed, with a reflexive approach. This experiment invites one to consider that making EI operational in a context of socio-technical transition toward agroecology represents system innovation, requiring on-going dialogue, reflexivity, and long-term involvement by researchers.

The Dynamics of the French Hemp System and Its Stakeholders

ABSTRACT In France the activities and knowledge concerning the hemp economic sector are historically regulated by an organization dedicated to the paper industry. However, the current context (saturation of the principal outlet and uncertainty regarding the maintenance of the European Union subsidies), makes it necessary to enhance the added value of the hemp crop by diversifying its outlets and by using the whole plant. Also, since the middle of the 1990s the stakeholders of the hemp milieu have important and varied expectations regarding possible new hemp markets, particularly in the fields of plastics processing and the building construction industry. On the basis of data collected during talks with the main stakeholders of the French hemp system, and based on various articles, publications, books, and the Internet, we will describe the organized French hemp system starting from the representation that the stakeholders of the hemp milieu themselves have given. We will begin our analysis with the organized character of this system. Then we will present the data which give information about its dynamics: first the surfaces used for the production and the levels of production, then the forms of organization of the transformation industry, and finally the structuring of research through the publications of patents and the commitment of research groups.

The Fragmentation of Plant and Food Biosecurity Research Networks: A Scientometric Analysis

Scientometric analysis based on the mapping of complex networks performed with the Cortext manager platform reveals that biosecurity and bioterrorism have established research communities and literature, in which plant and crop biosecurity are by far less represented than human and animal issues. Biosecurity has not made plant health “disappear” and/or does not constitute a rival field of research. The conceptual apparatus of biosecurity is close to that of some other fields of research on plant health. Some specific consistent clusters of scientists and concepts related to biosecurity and agro-terrorism can be isolated however, in particular the members of the PlantFoodSec Network of Excellence. This result demonstrates the impact of European and international programs (such as CropBioTerror, PlantFoodSec, etc.) on the structure of research networks on agro-terrorism. The article opens with an analysis of qualitative material regarding the way this scientific production and agenda permeates (or not) through daily professional activities. Focusing on plant biosecurity and agro-terrorism, it targets some common issues in scientometrics and sociology of science about the boundaries of research domains and the emergence of new paradigms with specific concepts, methods, authors and cited references. It also echoes the range of questions and reflections at stake within the scientific communities related to biosecurity, and shows the effects of expertise-driven processes on the dynamics of knowledge.

Creating Actionable Knowledge for Sustainability: A Case of “Standards in the Making”

Abstract nSocial and environmental standards-development organizations (SDOs) have been collaborating together to construct “meta-standards.” These exercises in standards-setting are part of a longer term process of transitioning innovative approaches to sustainable agriculture from diverse niches such as organic, fair trade, and environmental conservation into a regime of certified sustainability. Using participant observation during the development of an Assurance Code, we examine how actors construct the tools that enable them to influence the broader transition to sustainability. We do this by focusing on intermediation activities by “experts” during the development of a “meta-standard” for assurance. The purpose of this chapter is twofold. First, we propose that in order to understand transitions in progress, we should be attentive to how these processes are accompanied by intermediation activities. Second, we argue that intermediate objects (or boundary objects) are important in these processes as they help actors to create actionable knowledge. These intermediation activities and the production of actionable knowledge contribute to the ability of actors to govern markets in the transition toward sustainable agriculture.