La « visibilité des circuits courts » comme ressource commune
Abstract
The regional council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur decided to create an observatory for short food chains in 2010 with the aim of supporting their development. The observatory set out to improve knowledge of these chains and define their governance. Although initiated in a top-down manner, it ended up being organized through horizontal governance, thanks to the creation of links among actors who were not necessarily on good political terms initially. Looking at the history of this complex institution, one can identify successive conflicts and methods of resolution over the five years of its existence. Using Elinor Ostrom’s IAD framework (Institutional Analysis and Development) (2010), it can be ascertained that tensions were due to a social dilemma concerning resource ‘visibility’ (individual and collective) and that rules were devised to define how actors should appropriate and use this resource. In the end, this incremental construction constituted a rather complete institution in IAD terms, where one central actor (Regional Council) had an ambiguous role as both participant and funding body, which meant the system remained somewhat fragile. Eventually this fragility resulted in the end of the institution after a change in political composition of the Regional Council.institutional analysis, Governance, Short food chains.
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