Thinking of the agroecological transition as a psychosocial transition : Example of livestock farmers in Occitania

Environmental, climatic and societal issues, which raise issues about the sustainability of livestock farming systems, are calling on livestock farmers to commit to the agroecological transition. This, along with farmers' desire to change their working conditions, is profoundly altering practices and the profession, including the identity and meaning dimensions of the job. In this context of agroecological transition, which we apprehend as a psychosocial transition, our thesis aims to understand breeders' commitment to agroecological practices. We apprehend commitment not as a linear process, but as a multidimensional, subjective and developmental process. We have articulated the model of plural and active socialization and the Clinic of Activity , in order to make a clinical analysis of the professional activities of breeders, while taking into account the plurality of their spheres of life.This empirical research relied on a three-phase data collection process: two in situ clinical interviews on 13 farms (25 breeders) in the Occitanie region and a collective interview (with 9 breeders) grounded on the analysing of professional practice. Lexicometric analysis of the clinical interviews enabled us to identify the psychosocial dimensions at work in different commitment dynamics. The pragmatic analysis of the collective interview enabled us to observe the building of the commitment dynamics within a collective of peers.The results show that the complexity of the breeding activity calls for an analysis that takes into account the psychosocial dimensions of the activity's reality. In addition, we show that the dynamics of commitment are built at the crossroads of individual and collective intersignification processes enabling self-development and the development of the profession.A perspective of this thesis could be to explore more deeply the process of collective intersignification, in order to draw up recommendations for developing support for groups of different stakeholders concerned by the agroecological transition, then enabling them to build collectively and individually the meaning they wish to give to this transition.

Camille Berrier, Lorenzo Carré. Thinking of the agroecological transition as a psychosocial transition : Example of livestock farmers in Occitania. INRAE. 2025, 6p. https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-05247257

Complete Thesis in French: Camille Berrier. Approche psychosociale clinique de l'engagement dans de nouvelles pratiques professionnelles. L'exemple d'éleveurs en contexte de transition agroécologique en France. Psychologie. Université de Toulouse, 2024. Français. https://theses.hal.science/tel-04992354