Mots-clés :conflit d'usage ; exit-voice ; proximité ; eau ; bassin versant de la Charente Résumé -Nous développons dans cet article une grille d'analyse des conflits d'usage environnementaux, qui croise les apports du modèle exit/voice de Hirschman et les développements récents de l'économie de la proximité. Nous montrons notamment que les possibilités d'exit et de voice dépendent de la situation des acteurs dans l'espace physique (rôle de la proximité géographique), dans l'espace des ressources et dans l'espace des dispositifs de coordination (rôle de la proximité organisée). Nous appliquons ensuite cette grille de lecture au cas des conflits d'usage autour de la ressource en eau, en nous focalisant sur le conflit entre agriculteurs irrigants et ostréiculteurs. Jusqu'au début des années 2000, la conjonction d'une proximité géographique subie, d'une faible proximité organisée et d'une inégalité spatiale et institutionnelle des deux collectifs d'acteurs ne laissait entrevoir quasiment aucune issue au conflit. Depuis, la mise en place du Plan de gestion des étiages, à l'initiative de l'établissement public territorial de bassin du fleuve Charente (EPTB Charente) a permis de renforcer la proximité organisée entre acteurs et de pallier, au moins partiellement, les problèmes quantitatifs rencontrés.
Keywords:Environmental conflict; exit-voice; proximity; water resources; river Charente area Abstract -Refining the exit-voice model with proximity economics. This article aims to develop a theoretical analysis by combining Hirschman's exit-voice model with the recent development of proximity economics about the respective roles of geographical proximity and organised proximity in the production and management of environmental issues. We show that both exit and voice solutions depend on the actors' positioning in several social structures, i.e., geographical space, resources space and coordination structures. These theoretical findings are then applied to the issue of water resource conflicts observed in the French region drained by the river Charente. More precisely, we focus on the conflict between agriculture and oyster culture arising mainly from the intensive development of irrigation. Up to the early 2000s, we note that the conflict was difficult to solve since (i) geographical proximity was imposed on the stakeholders, (ii) mobilisation of organised proximity seemed very difficult for oyster culturists, (iii) the relation, both geographical and institutional, between agriculture and oyster culture was asymmetric. Since then, organised proximity has evolved positively thanks to the volumetric management coordinated by the River Charente Institution, which has introduced some new rules for irrigation practices. This development consolidates the voice solution and allows actors to partially solve the quantitative environmental problem they are faced with.
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