Morand 1999, Joining agriculture, environment and tourism : qualification dynamics analysis as a tool for regional development

Joining agriculture, environment and tourism : qualification dynamics analysis as a tool for regional development
(an application of the justification theory)

Frédéric Morand
Doctorate thesis, Institutional Economics, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS, Paris)
March 1999 - 311 p., 384 bibliog. ref., 64 illustrations

Abstract

For two decades, the French national farming policy is undergoing a decentralisation process and is extending to a wider variety of agents concerned with rural development. Growing environmental concerns urge that land uses be redefined. But should 'conservation' rules exclude 'production' imperatives of rural development ?

Problems of conflicting values don't easily dissolve into a study of 'pure market' driven rationality. An original approach derived from the French convention theory considers a variety of distinct qualities (including market values). Reporting qualities actually assigned to objects by people sheds light on the relationship between conservation and modernization of rural assets (productive, natural, cultural).

Agri-environmental policy gives some wet meadows of the Marais Poitevin partial and uncomplete qualifications which hamper agriculture. By contrast, an agrotourism project in Languedoc proves coherent with the new qualities assigned to local agriculture. This analysis of requalification dynamics gives prospects to policy-making and education, in the current context of regional development.

Key words : agriculture, conventions, coordination, decentralisation, economics, environment, farm policy, institutions, landscape, land use, Mediterranean ranges, objects, qualification, quality, rationality, rules, rural development, rural assets, stakeholders, territory, tourism, wetlands.