Addressing the diversity of visions of ecologization in research and in support to agroecological transitions

Abstract

Agroecology is increasingly recognized as a relevant framework for envisioning the transition of agriculture and food systems, but is often tackled in a dualistic perspective opposing strong or radical visions of agroecology to weak or incremental ones. This article is based on a collective, reflexive and comparative analysis of eight research projects dealing with agroecological transitions at the scale of farming systems and agrifood systems. Each project brought together a diversity of actors having different visions of ecologization. The aim of this article is to describe how and with what benefits this diversity of visions was addressed in the projects. We show that taking into account the diversity of visions is necessary for understanding agroecological transitions, and that beyond this, sharing this diversity among the concerned actors is necessary for accompanying them in an inclusive way and, under certain conditions, enrich transition pathways. We also show the need to adopt analytical approaches to characterize the visions along with participatory action-research approaches allowing to share them and support transitions. Finally, the collective and reflexive process we carried out for this article also enabled the researchers to situate their projects and themselves with regard to their role in the agro-ecological transitions.