The importance of niches' diversity in sustainable agri-food transition processes
(2013) 4th International Sustainability Transitions conference — Location: Zurich, Switzerland (19.June.2013)
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- Abstract
- Research question(s) In occidental countries, conventional farming as a dominant sociotechnical regime is increasingly questioned. In response to criticisms, legislation on water or pesticide use and policies to encourage transition towards sustainable agro-food systems are implemented. For example in 2008, France developed an action plan named Ecophyto, targeting a 50% reduction in pesticide use by 2018 “if possible”. However, these supranational and national measures have only effects at the margins and seem unable to trigger transitions of sociotechnical agro-food systems towards sustainability. At the same time, a lot of “grassroots initiatives” (Seyfang et Smith, 2007) are implemented by multi-actor partnerships to develop organic and low-inputs farming practices. In this paper, we will analyze the processes through which the diversity of these grassroots initiatives can contribute to transitions towards sustainable agro-food systems. Theory/conceptual framework applied This hypothesis is based on the combination of two theoretical frameworks used in a critical way. The first is the theory of ecological modernization applied to the development of sustainable agro-food systems (Van der Ploeg, Renting et al., 2000; Marsden, 2004), which gives a very particular importance to local communities’ initiatives in order to encourage the development of sustainable practices on a wider scale. The second is the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) (Geels et Schot, 2007). This heuristic framework considers sociotechnical transitions as a result of interactions between the dynamics at stake at three analytical levels: the niche level, the regime level and the landscape level. It considers niches as “seeds for change”(Geels, 2002), therefore placing emphasis on the role of niche-innovation to transform or replace a sociotechnical regime through niche accumulation and niche aggregation processes. If the combination of both frameworks is relevant for the analysis of transition processes towards sustainable agro-food systems at a large scale, some blind spots remain. Little is still know about the niches structures and the processes trough which niches can shake up the prevailing sociotechnical regime. This is why we chose to focus on these points. Methods used In order to highlight these blind spots, we studied four case studies in two French Regions (Rhone-Alpes and Ile-de-France). We chose these grassroots initiatives because they each have an effect on different components of the sociotechnical agro-food system and relate to different processes. Their joint analysis allows describing and understanding how niche innovations develop, how they interact with the regime. In the first Region, the Paris Basin, we studied: - An organization mobilized for the preservation of water quality, which brings into question conventional practices of farmers. In this perspective, this organization develops sensitization activities for farmers and visits of field trials to convince farmers to use low-input practices. Progressively, and because of the support of local authorities the organization manage to goad the traditional extensions services to take in charge the development of sustainable farming practices. - A coalition of city-dwellers from a periurban area of Paris, who created an “Amap” with a cereal farmer. The first objective was to produce local food, but also to create interdependence between farmer and non-farmers and to favor environmental-friendly practices, in order to legitimize the preservation of a periurban farmland threatened by urbanization. A few years later, to reinforce their action, the initiators of “the Amap” developed a project of short supply chain for local catering, which involved other famers of the territory, municipalities and others potential consumers. In the second Region, the Drôme river basin, we studied: - A consumer group in a rural area which created a joint buying organization. Their original aim was to have access to organic products. The group rapidly increased up to 700 families and had to convert into a cooperative society. At the same time it appeared being necessary to redefine the aims of the organization. Current targets are to maintain local production and to develop an alternative economic model, which has induced incorporation of local farmers in the organization. Local production now accounts for 40% of the cooperative’s supply. - An organization of citizens and farmers, mobilized for the development of short circuits through sensitization activities and actions with catering trade. Its project of creating a distribution platform has concretized with the support of local authorities, which had the same project. All case studies are analyzed with an ethnographical approach, based on comprehensive interviews and participant observation. We chose to analyze the long term dynamics – past processes and processes nowadays at stake, in a socio-historical perspective. Results First, our research leads us to characterize each studied niches through their governance system (cooperative, participative, entrepreneurial…), their desired future and objectives (staying a niche in a conventional agro-food system, upscaling and/or outscaling of activities, contributing to an alternative way of economic development…) and the technical practices they encourage (organic farming, integrated farming, low-input farming…). Second, we highlight the processes of niche reinforcement and the interaction dynamics between niche and regime. We identify in which conditions these processes manage triggering deep sociotechnical changes at the regime level. We show the importance of embeddedness of such niches in local political projects, although this embeddedness can have multiple forms. Moreover, it is this embeddedness in public policies which may guarantee a certain social equity in the processes of niche reinforcement in terms of the population of farmers and consumers involved in these processes. These results lead us to question the synergies and dynamics between niches. How can they shake up the prevailing sociotechnical regimes? Our case-studies, analyzed at a territorial scale, lead us to emphasize the role of the coexistence of a diversity of niches in transition processes towards sustainable sociotechnical agro-food systems. We show that each niche can transform different components of the sociotechnical agro-food system without being necessarily formally linked with other niches. Based on the analysis of the modes of coordination and decision making articulated in these niches, we show that these transition processes partly rely on a redefinition of the links between the different components of the sociotechnical system, achieved through the coexistence of a diversity of niches. While in the current agro-food system the interdependencies between these components generate strong lock-in effects (Cowan et Gunby, 1996; Vanloqueren et Baret, 2008), in these niches it is precisely the redefinition of these interdependencies, which makes transition processes possible. Therefore, diversity of niches and innovation in the modes of coordination seem to be important conditions for niches to trigger deep sociotechnical changes at the regime level.
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Cardona, A., Bui, S., & Lamine, C. (2013). The importance of niches’ diversity in sustainable agri-food transition processes. 4th International Sustainability Transitions conference, Zurich, Switzerland. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/125731