Une approche constructiviste et territoriale pour développer la connaissance et la reconnaissance des micro-fermes. Exemple du programme de recherche-action MicroAgri en Gironde

Abstract

MicroAgri action-research program (Gironde, France) was born out of a meeting between local people involved in different social spheres (lecturer and researcher from different disciplines, community and entrepreneurial players and micro-farm managers). Our aim is to develop knowledge and acknowledgement of micro-farms by opening up their scope of observation. The “social world” of micro-farms is no longer exclusively defined by their market-gardening production system, their smaller-than-standard cultivated surface area or their urban link. To adopt this wider perspective, territorial integration of our program has proved useful. It was facilitated by the territorial integration of MicroAgri’s members, role of the coordinator and multi-partner committees. This article highlights the interest of our scientific approach (constructivism, collaborative and territorialised action-research) and the tools developed (participatory census to collect and portraits to format data). Our original approach shows diversity of production systems beyond common representations and make it easier to understand how farms operate and how it is spatially translated (combination between individual, production system and territory).

Keywords

• micro-farm
• constructivism
• territory
• collaborative action research
• participatory census