Les paradoxes de la résilience en matière de sécurité alimentaire

Abstract

The article analyzes the conformities and mismatches between thinking about resilience in the literature and how resilience is addressed in projects for development and food security and practical guides for resilience assessment. Six paradoxes are raised, regarding: the understanding or measurement of resilience; resilience in a situation of blockage; the role of the concept as a mobilizing metaphor when its interpretation is controversial; its integrative nature when its evaluation most often focuses on dissociated components; its positioning in relation to vulnerability; and the multidisciplinary nature of the concept of resilience. We consider how to solve each paradox and better understand the links between agricultural production and rural household food security in a context of poverty, environmental degradation, and multiple hazards. This highlights what can set apart the work on resilience in terms of approach, and the possibility of an original contribution in the field of development, namely by considering the diversity of points of view involved and by shedding light on the irreversibility of changes.

Keywords

• participation
• agricultural development
• trajectories
• thresholds
• interactions
• irreversibility