Presentation short abstract

We reflect on the potential of repoliticising agroecological policies through the concept of farmer’s autonomy, based on a participatory action-research project led in southwest France. Our results evidence the empirical legitimacy, analytical value and deliberative potential of autonomy.

Presentation long abstract

Public policies are to play a key role in supporting agroecological transitions. Yet in Europe, many agroecological policies have been depoliticised, masking the environmental justice and political economy issues related to agroecological transitions. This is notably the case in France, one of the first countries where agroecology has been institutionalised in the early 2010s, largely drawing on discourses on farms’ ‘triple performance’.

Drawing on a participatory action-research based led in southwest France, we analyse the relevance of the concept of autonomy as an analytical framework that helps to reveal the tensions and ambiguities in agroecology policies and as a counternarrative that support a better consideration of the political dimension of agroecological transitions in policies. We draw on a literature review on the relationships between public agroecological policies and autonomy, together with an empirical analysis of farmer’s autonomy in Southwest France, through diverse methods such as farm system analysis, and deliberative workshops with farmers and policy-makers.

Our results evidence the empirical legitimacy, analytical value and deliberative potential of autonomy both as a framework and mobilising discourse. Finally, we reflect on the limitations and risks of a normative or uncritical conceptualisation of autonomy and on the potential contributions of a feminist political ecology perspective.