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Could you tell us very briefly about your secondment and your role in ATTER?

I arrived in Bari (Puglia, Italy) at the beginning of May for a two-month secondment. In the ATTER project I am a case study leader (West of Vosges - France) and I am strongly involved in the WP5; I am co-leader of task 5.2 aiming at the analysis of methodological frameworks supporting transition.

Could you share with us an aspect of your secondment?

While preparing my secondment with Patrizia Pugliese (CIHEAM) a few months ago, we discussed the opportunity to associate my visit to Puglia with the Action-Learning Programme for CIHEAM Bari’s SARe course. This training module was built and conducted by a group of Italian colleagues from CIHEAM (Patrizia, Marie-Reine Bteich, Lamberto Lamberti, and Philip Debs) and was developed in synergy with the ATTER Case Study Alto Salento - Puglia- Italy. The instruction given to the eight students of the master's degree was to produce a representation of the dynamics of the territory with regard to the agroecological transition. For this, a succession of three learning cycles (with one corresponding to an articulation between learning, planning, acting and reflecting) over 4 consecutive weeks was conceived: i) Learning how to read a territory and its trajectories ii) Mapping agroecological farm-level practices iii) Territorial reading of agroecological processes: from farm-level to territorial level. Each learning cycle is structured had classroom time with theoretical contributions by the teaching team, field meetings with various local actors (agricultural producers and processors, managers of natural areas, agritourism actors, LAGs, naturalist guides, etc.), and work in sub-groups to prepare for interviews and then discuss, analyse and formalise the results obtained.

What was your contribution during your secondment?

Because I arrived at the same time as the action-learning module was starting, I had the opportunity to discover the case study at the same time as the students. Because of my theoretical background and previous experience in observing, describing, analysing and formalising territorial realities/situations, I could share with the students insights, questions, and sometimes even misunderstandings with regards to what the field and its actors reveal to us.  Also, I share with the Italian teachers and researchers a scientific background that is both theoretical and methodological. I am thus able to intervene in a somewhat distanced manner, which can sometimes contribute to enriching some exchanges between students and teachers.

Could you describe examples of the activities that took place?

I held two seminars in the 4th week of the students' work: the first one proposed a critical viewpoint on contemporary modes of project management with regard to the challenges of the agroecological transition (AET), particularly issues such as the « strategic management ». This concept, originating from the industrial world, is based on strong rationalisation with the planning and anticipation of actions and results. I question the adequacy of this form of management, especially when it becomes hegemonic. During this first seminar, visions and values were also discussed in the context of AET, with the proposal of short role-playing exercises allowing students to reflect on their own visions of AET and to reexamine the interviews conducted with various local actors in the light of this question of values.

The second seminar was based on the presentation of the Ouest des Vosges Case Study that I lead within ATTER. The idea was mainly to discuss the methods and formalisations used to describe it, in particular those developed in ATTER. We thus offered students of an action-learning course (faced with the challenge of analysing and giving shape to their observations and survey results) an example of what it is possible to do to construct an analytical narrative of a situation. Presenting this case also allowed the Italian colleagues to hear a new understanding of the Vosges Case Study, complementary to what had already been exchanged on various occasions in ATTER (for example during the Annual Meeting, or in webinars).