Paper short abstract:

This communication will present the impacts of a problematic encounter of public and professional norms in the pastoral world of Provence. It will describe the strategies adopted by shepherds to manage paradoxical injunctions in their work and how they have progressively internalized these norms.

Paper long abstract:

In this communication, Emilie Richard-Frève proposes to present the results of her research in anthropology, which question the impact of French and European agricultural public policies on the transformation of the agricultural world, and more particularly among transhumant sheep herders in south-eastern France. Immersed in this pastoral environment for more than 15 years, she was able to observe, as a salaried shepherdess, the evolution of a profession confronted with a growing standardization and bureaucratization of work. She observed how shepherds became increasingly dependent on subsidies, leading them to change their way of doing. However, this imposed change in practices and the mastery of these new administrative skills were not evident and shook up the representations and existing professional standards. Using examples, she will describe some strategies adopted by shepherds to manage these 'public norms' while trying to maintain a good position within their professional group. She will present the paradoxical injunctions experienced by these shepherds and the progressive internalization (voluntary or not) of the 'public norms' observed. She will describe the representations of the shepherds about 'public norms' and will analyse the evolution of this meeting of public and professional norms. She will conclude with questions about the apprehension of 'public norms' in social science research. In fact, what is a 'public norm' and how is it negotiated by citizens, individually or collectively? How do they confront existing social norms and relations of power? In short, how can we study these normative phenomena in social anthropology?