Contenu du sommaire : Représenter les agriculteurs

The Erosion of the Power to Represent : The space of agricultural expression in France since the 1960sBy way of introduction to this thematic issue, this article offers an analysis of the transformations of the space of agricultural representation in France over recent decades. While at the outset of the 1980s the “agricultural world” seemed to be a privileged site for studying the mechanisms contributing to the symbolic unification of social and professional groups, the studies analyzed in this issue were conducted in a markedly different context. Indeed, the power of representation the FNSEA and CNJA built over the 1960s and 1970s, legitimated by political leaders and institutions responsible for guiding agriculture, came to be weakened by a variety of corroborating processes. Accounting for this history requires putting these developments in relation, from political authorities' definitions of representativity to the reconstitution of the field of agricultural organizations and media coverage of collective actions.

The Confédération paysanne's CAP “experts” : the social logics of farmers' Union representation. Studies based on Union or party representation logics bring a social distinction between militants and representatives to light, due in particular to a discrepancy in economical and cultural capital, to the advantage of the latter. A sociological analysis of Confédération paysanne's national representatives' selection and more precisely of those considered “experts” of the CAP, shows further distinctive processes at work. Thus, this article not only reveals the importance of a specific “militant capital” but also the organizational logics significance in the designation of Union representatives. Besides, focusing on the “experts” figure demonstrates the relativity of militant resources, which value depends on the organizational context.

Producing unity in the dominant farmers' union in France (FNSEA). The management of diverging interests and the socialization to a common culture at the département levelHow can unity endure in an organization that accommodates many diverging interests ? Taking cues from an in-depth ethnographic study of FNSEA, the main union representing French farmers, in the Orne department, this paper shows the constant unification work carried out to maintain the group. The union leaders hold regular meetings, especially about the allocation of collective means of production. Conflict avoidance in negotiations between powerful interest groups within the union leads to a patronized form of management of the land market. Conversely, collective bargaining over prices maintains lively internal debates among the organization most powerful interest groups. Couched in the language of economic expertise, these debates create a shared language between members. Finally, a common identity – that of the “good farmer” ties together the members of the group.

Making one (corporate) body with the farmers. The agricultural press at stake and France's National Federation of Farming Unions' interests. This article questions the importance of agricultural press for the majoritarian farmers'union, the FNSEA, dealing with the question of its representativeness. At first, the authors highlight a phased trend towards press concentration to the benefit of majority union. During challenging times, the core issue remains the FNSEA ability to reassert its position and especially to symbolically build the unity of the peasantry, a highly heterogeneous social group. Réussir is established in 1986. It groups together departmental newspapers under the union monitoring. The most powerful or agricultural organizations takes equity investments in two flagships of this agricultural press (Agra press agency, France agricole) in 2011. Thus, FNSEA could champion the cause of the agricultural world. Shareholding is an attribute of union forces. Secondly, the authors question the control modalities by the union of the editorial line and the journalists working in different newspapers linked to the FNSEA. They describe the variety of union dependency connections, linked to the individual trajectories of journalists. Thus, the article shows that FNSEA is far from exercising on those medias a monolithic domination.

Destroying to exist : French milk strikes in 1964, 1972, and 2009In the fall of 2009, a wave of demonstrations by French farmers predominantly took the form of a milk strike. The destruction of a significant quantity of milk, spread over fields or dumped in slurry tanks, typified the strike and drew considerable media coverage. Beyond the sought-after effects of shock and attracting attention, such practices are in line with a long history of constructing a specific repertory of action within the agricultural world, observable over the three milk strikes of the last half-century. The forms of action deployed in 1964, 1972, and 2009 reflect the transformation of economic and union power relations and the necessity of taking actions of increasing visibility. The decisive importance of media access, television in particular, in implementing collective mobilizations leads us to highlight the changes that have taken place in systems of agricultural and farmer representation, and how they are used by professional and media actors.

When organic farmers shuffle professional representation. Institutionalisation of organic farming in the Alpes-Maritimes. Organic farmers have been marginalized by the main farmers unions, for a long time. Their professional representation, based on associations, has been a centrifugal force of the profession from the beginning. In the last couple of years, political injunctions for the development of organic farming in France have increased, and public authorities are inciting the various professional organizations to work together. The field work completed in the Alpes-Maritimes department allows us to analyze the effects of these political changes on the local farmers' organizations. Although in certain other places, policies that promote organic farming have lead to the absorption of associations by unions, in our region, professional organizations continue their battle (on unequal terms), in order to remain in existence, attract funds and give off the social image of the organic farming profession that they seek to defend.

Teaching Terroir : The challenge of ideological appropriation by dairy farmers in AOC union organizations. This article analyzes the formation and consolidation of two organizations devoted to defending the interests of specific French denomination of origin (AOC) cheeses : the Époisses cheese union based in Burgundy, and the union for the three AOC cheeses of Basse-Normandy. Ethnographic studies in each region illustrate the ideological activity in this particular type of interest group, unions that are ideally composed of all actors along a given cheese's production chain to define its production methods (to be strictly controlled under the law) and defend their collective interest. Yet in these two chains, dairy farmers had only recently been made aware of the use made of their milk and unexpectedly found themselves in a pre-existing collective undertaking. Union leadership encourages farmers' participation and loyalty by training them in “the logic of terroir”, a crucial element in getting them to re-examine their milk production methods and guiding them toward an agreement on the rules governing how they should produce their milk for the AOC. Obtaining enough members and milk is only part of what's at stake ; union leaders must also get participants to accept national AOC standards. These farmers are “captive members” of a union whose work includes the negotiation of local agronomic issues while respecting the conception of terroir espoused by AOCs' national promoters, a situation that provokes tensions with other, better established belief systems held by various actors in the agricultural sector. These legacies influence the interpretations that terroir can take over the course of discussions between farmers, without undermining the economic opportunities that this ideological construction has to offer.

Pragmatic Sociology : A User's Guide
During the last thirty years, the researchers working within the orientation known as “pragmatic sociology” have produced a considerable amount of empirical investigations relating to all areas of social life. In accordance with the theoretical and methodological assumptions they intended to defend, they have developed significantly new ways to conduct their inquiries, to collect data, to explore their fields, to think through the cases and controversies they used as entry points to explore the social order and its always problematic reproduction. The aim of this paper is to characterize by highlighting ten points the pragmatic style in sociology and to specify what are its methodological requisites and practical implications in the conduct of research.

« E pur si muove », or how can citizenship processes be empirically grasped
This article aims at discussing the conditions of possibility for empirically grounded approaches of citizenship processes, by relying on the already very rich social sciences literature on the issue. This literature relies on a conception of citizenship that stresses its essentially fluid and contextual dimensions, and does not limit it to the electoral sphere. Grasping such citizenships in acts thus requires to take a logical “side step” and to include in the analysis all the complex interminglings of social and political processes.

About Michel de FORNEL et Albert OGIEN, dir., Bourdieu, théoricien de la pratique, Paris, Éditions de l'EHESS, coll. « Raisons pratiques », 21, 2011, 284 p. The collected essays devoted to Pierre Bourdieu's theory of practice break away from the sterile tradition that forces readers to be unconditionally for or radically against the sociologist's work. The authors are philosophers, sociologists, anthropologists and linguists. Their relationship with Bourdieu's endeavor may vary and the book is constructed from diverse perspectives. If there is a stress on pragmatism, linguistics and phenomenology, the central issue is to know what should be added to Bourdieu's theory, or what should be removed to develop a full theory of action. The volume is divided in four parts, Theory, Politics, Language and Action, in a both plural and cohesive questioning. The book is undoubtedly an inescapable reference on a classical work.