Transitions in Tension, Volume 3 E-Book
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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
- Serie: ISTE Invoiced
- Sprache: Englisch
Transitioning towards a more sustainable world is currently a central topic receiving a lot of attention. As a result, “transitions” are becoming key objects and the drivers of exchanges, communications and controversy in modern society.
This book examines the tensions and controversies surrounding the energy, ecological and social transitions currently underway, and it draws on tools developed in the humanities and social sciences, in particular the information and communication sciences. The various case studies gathered here, written by leading experts in environmental communication, examine a wide range of topics; they explore transitions in a number of different fields, from agriculture to territorial policies, and from online and media communication to mechanisms for citizen participation.
Transitions in Tension features a wealth of original observations and approaches, enabling readers to fully comprehend the range of controversies and issues facing our society
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Seitenzahl: 330
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024
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Table of Contents
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Author Presentation
Introduction
I.1. The “communication, environment, science and society” research group
References
1 Challenges to the Agroecological Transition: Can We Talk About “Agribashing” in France?
1.1. Introduction
1.2. “Agribashing”, a formula?
1.3. Inclusion in the media agenda
1.4. Disqualification of dissenting voices
1.5. Conclusion
1.6. References
2 A “Showcase Agriculture” Around Cities? Urban Food Policies, a Communication Tool for Farmers’ Organizations
2.1. The agricultural aspects of urban food policies
2.2. Collaborations between local agricultural elites and municipal or metropolitan teams
2.3. Communication issues at the heart of collaborations between local agricultural elites and urban centers
2.4. Conclusion
2.5. References
3 Local Conflicts Around Creative Development Projects
3.1. Local public spaces that “repoliticize” public decision-making
3.2. Local tensions generated by challenging the frames of thought and modalities of construction of public decision-making
3.3. Objects of the conflict configured by mediated discourses
3.4. Consultation mechanisms and bodies ineffective for shared construction of the project
3.5. Conclusion
3.6. References
4 Mid-Mountains in Transition: From Tension to Relatedness
4.1. Mid-mountains in transition: context, questions and methods
4.2. Mid-mountains, mediation and models of society: communication as basis for a common project?
4.3. Conclusion/questions for consideration: relatedness, key to development for the mid-mountains?
4.4. References
5 The Mountains in Transition: Introducing Scientific Culture into Tourism Under the Influence of “All Skiing”
5.1. Introduction
5.2. A tourism diversification project deprived of its scientific territorialities
5.3. A scientific tourism project derailed by the influence of winter tourism
5.4. Conclusion
5.5. References
6 Offshore Wind Power on Facebook: “Reframing” Media Coverage of the Energy Transition
6.1. Methodological approach
6.2. Results
6.3. Conclusion
6.4. References
7 “
Y’a le feu au lac
!”: Podcasts and Ecological Transitions
7.1. Method
7.2. Results
7.3. Conclusion
7.4. References
8 Analyzing an Ecological Controversy on YouTube: Obstacles and Methodological Issues
8.1. Introduction
8.2. Addressing a controversy on socio-digital media: epistemological pluralism
8.3. Methodological approaches
8.4. Conclusion
8.5. References
9 Sustainability Transitions in Tension: Sustainability Transitions in the Discourse of Eco-Shaming
9.1. Sustainability transition: what’s in a name?
9.2. Analysis of the eco-shaming discourse and its notion of sustainability transitions
9.3. Sustainability transition in the eco-shaming discourse
9.4. One sustainability transition among others
9.5. Conclusion
9.6. References
10 Discursive Controversies Around Electric Vehicles in France: Between Ecological Transition and Doubt
10.1. Introduction
10.2. Theoretical and methodological framework
10.3. Corpus
10.4. Narrative analysis
10.5. Conclusion
10.6. References
11 What Has Ecological Transition Become the Name For?
11.1. Between the groundswell and the economic situation, the ecological transition buffeted but central
11.2. Ecological transition: a depoliticized expert notion
11.3. Implementing the ecological transition, between territorial economic development and a changing world
11.4. Conclusion
11.5. References
12 Labels as a Process of Institutionalization of Environmental Themes
12.1. Regulation and communication
12.2. Regulation and societal change
12.3. References
13 Comparative Analysis of Ecologist Discourses Produced for the Web in France
13.1. Ecology at the heart of a semantic struggle
13.2. Selection of organizations representative of the ecologist struggle in France and distinguishing their info-communicational methods
13.3. Textometric analysis of discourse on websites
13.4. Discussion
13.5. Appendix: list of field observations
13.6. References
14 Contrastive Analysis of Enunciation in Digital Citizen Participation
14.1. Introduction
14.2. Production of the positioning of the enunciator
14.3. Objects of the discourse linked to the enunciator
14.4. Conclusion
14.5. References
15 Political Mediations in the Case of Energy Transition: Deep Geothermal Energy as Perceived by Local Residents
15.1. Evaluating the benefits and risks of deep geothermal energy
15.2. The challenges and shortcomings of a policy of popularization
15.3. Conclusion: reinventing territorial political mediations of the energy transition?
15.4. References
List of Authors
Index
Other titles from ISTE in Science, Society and New Technologies
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Chapter 3
Table 3.1. Main characteristics of the development projects observed
Chapter 6
Table 6.1. Observation results for the Facebook spaces studied
Table 6.2. Comparison of corpora according to themes determined via DHC indica...
Chapter 7
Table 7.1. Description of the podcasts in the corpus
Chapter 8
Table 8.1. Distribution of some actors in French media by ideological current.
Table 8.2. Categories of actors at the media level in 2019
Table 8.3. Synoptic table of actors in the comments on the controversy in 2019
Chapter 9
Table 9.1. A sustainability transition according to the eco-shaming discourse:...
Chapter 13
Table 13.1. Classification of selected organizations
Table 13.2. Comparison of digital channels used by organizations
Table 13.3. Locations and types of organizations observed during the explorato...
Chapter 14
Table 14.1. Numerical characteristics of the two corpora studied. To facilitat...
Table 14.2. Comparison of occurrences of 1st person singular and plural pronou...
Table 14.3. Comparison of occurrences of 1st person singular and plural posses...
Table 14.4. Classification, in the typology of analysis, of the head nouns of ...
Table 14.5. Distribution of notions, persons or objects designated in the disc...
List of Illustrations
Chapter 1
Figure 1.1. Temporal distribution of articles.
Figure 1.2. Google trends analysis of agribashing
Figure 1.3. Distribution of NDP publications
Figure 1.4. Distribution of RDP publications
Figure 1.5. “Word cloud” for NDP and RDP in French.
Chapter 3
Figure 3.1. Some forms of expression of the demands of opponent collectives in...
Chapter 4
Figure 4.1. Example of a poster from the 2021 campaign in the Bauges. The post...
Figure 4.2. Elements of the winter communication campaign of the Bauges RNP, p...
Chapter 6
Figure 6.1. Sample of text data associated with the metadata of URLs shared on...
Figure 6.2. DHC analysis of the MD corpus (IRaMuTeQ)
Figure 6.3. DHC analysis of the OD corpus (IRaMuTeQ)
Figure 6.4. DHC analysis of the SMD corpus (IRaMuTeQ)
Chapter 8
Figure 8.1. Categorization by type of actor and by affinity based on links fro...
Chapter 10
Figure 10.1. Word cloud
Figure 10.2. Similarity analysis
Figure 10.3. Dendrogram analysis of the themes of the corpus
Figure 10.4. Factorial analysis of correspondences
Figure 10.5. Factorial analysis of the correspondences of corpus variables
Figure 10.6. Representation of conversational ecosystems on Twitter
Chapter 11
Figure 11.1. Number of articles per month and by type of press.
Figure 11.2. Descending hierarchical classification (IRaMuTeQ) – 22 terminal c...
Chapter 12
Figure 12.1. Ministry of the Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sover...
Figure 12.2. Presentation of the envol approach
5
.
Chapter 13
Figure 13.1. Dendrogram of descending hierarchical classification
Figure 13.2. Factorial analysis of correspondences between lexical forms
Chapter 14
Figure 14.1. Summary diagram of the proposed typology of analysis
Guide
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Author Presentation
Introduction
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
List of Authors
Index
Other titles from ISTE in Interdisciplinarity, Science and Humanities
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Communication, Environment, Science and Society Set
coordinated by
Andrea Catellani and Céline Pascual Espuny
Volume 3
Transitions in Tension
Controversies and Tensions Around Ecological Transitions
Edited by
Andrea Catellani
Grégoire Lits
First published 2024 in Great Britain and the United States by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licenses issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned address:
ISTE Ltd27-37 St George’s RoadLondon SW19 4EUUKwww.iste.co.uk
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.111 River StreetHoboken, NJ 07030USAwww.wiley.com
© ISTE Ltd 2024
The rights of Andrea Catellani and Grégoire Lits to be identified as the authors of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s), contributor(s) or editor(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of ISTE Group.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2024941766
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication DataA CIP record for this book is available from the British LibraryISBN 978-1-78630-910-5
Author Presentation
François Allard-Huver
François Allard-Huver is an Associate Professor in Strategic and Digital Communication at the University of Lorraine, Nancy, as well as co-head of the “Praxis” research team within the Center for Research on Mediations (CREM). His work deals with the issue of environmental and health controversies around food and pesticides. He is particularly interested in the question of “affairs” in the media and public sphere. He also works on risks, sustainable development and organizations, particularly on the CSR communication and public relations strategies of various actors in the public sphere (institutions, civil society, lobbies, industry). He regularly participates in symposia and conferences on the relationship between sustainable development, risk, controversies, food and communication. A former board member of the International Communication Association (ICA), he is secretary of the “Philosophy, Theory and Critique” division, a member of the management committee of the “Communication, Environment, Science and Society” (CESS) study and research group of the French Society of Information and Communication Sciences (SFSIC) and scientific director of the Academy of Controversies and Sensitive Communication (ACCS).
Pauline Amiel
Pauline Amiel is the head of EJCAM and responsible for that school’s master’s program in journalism. She is also a Lecturer in Information and Communication Sciences, IMSIC, Aix-Marseille University – University of Toulon. Her work focuses particularly on solutions journalism, the local press and the roles of journalists in public spaces.
Cyrille Bodin
Cyrille Bodin holds a PhD in Information and Communication Sciences and is an associate researcher at the Research Group on Communication Issues (GRESEC), Grenoble Alpes University. His work focuses on the mediation and mediatization of science, on environmental and/or socio-scientific controversies, as well as on engagements of researchers and scientific institutions in public communication.
Andrea Catellani
Andrea Catellani is a Professor of Communication at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCLouvain, Belgium). He co-leads the “Communication, Environment, Science and Society” study and research group of the French Society of Information and Communication Sciences (SFSIC); he coordinates the international research project “Overcoming Obstacles and Disincentives to Climate Change Mitigation” (2020–2024). He has published various articles and works, notably on environmental communication and rhetoric, discourses on the social responsibility of organizations, the semiotic approach to organizations, ethics in communication, and the relationship between religion and communication in the digital world.
Mikaël Chambru
Mikaël Chambru is a Lecturer in Social Sciences at Grenoble Alpes University and scientific co-coordinator of Labex ITTEM (Innovations and Territorial Transitions in the Mountains). His research focuses on publicizing science, public controversies, and socio-environmental mobilizations.
Philippe Chavot
Philippe Chavot is a Lecturer in Information and Communication Sciences at the University of Strasbourg. He is a member of the Interuniversity Laboratory in Education and Communication Sciences (LISEC-UR 2310) and coordinates the work of the social sciences group of the Interdisciplinary Thematic Institute “Geosciences for the Energy Transition” (ITI GéoT). His work focuses on science in the media, mediation and consultation mechanisms, and socio-technological controversies.
Cécilia Claeys
Cécilia Claeys is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Perpignan Via Domitia. Her research focuses on land use planning conflicts, recreational uses of nature and environmental risks.
Amélie Coulbaut-Lazzarini
Amélie Coulbaut-Lazzarini is an Associate Professor in Information and Communication Sciences at GRESEC, Grenoble Alpes University, as well as a member of the management committee GER COMENSS. Situated in environmental communication, her current research explores the notion of human/non-human reliance and links, particularly in mid-mountain areas and in connection with the public communications of regional natural parks. Her research deals with the socio- ecological transition issues of territories and integrates the analysis of innovative and sustainable communication, awareness-raising, mediation practices and processes.
Quentin Daveau
Quentin Daveau holds a master’s degree in Scientific and Technical Communication and Culture from Grenoble Alpes University.
Orélie Desfriches-Doria
Orélie Desfriches-Doria is a Lecturer in Information and Communication Sciences at Paris 8 University and a researcher at the Paragraph laboratory. Her research focuses on argumentation modeling and controversy mapping, information control and critical thinking. She is a member of the study and research group on ethics and digital technology in information-communication (GENIC).
Jules Dilé-Toustou
Jules Dilé-Toustou holds a PhD in Information and Communication Sciences at LERASS, Toulouse. He is mainly interested in analyzing discourse on web platforms, particularly from activist perspectives. He also teaches at the IUT of Castres where he teaches introductory courses in humanities and social sciences and the socioeconomics of the Internet.
Jean-Claude Domenget
Jean-Claude Domenget is a Senior Lecturer in Information and Communication Sciences at the University of Franche-Comté. He is responsible for the Conception, Creation, Mediations (CCM) division of the ELLIADD laboratory, vice-president of the professional relations commission and in charge of relations with the study and research groups (GER) within the SFSIC. His research focuses on the uses of socio-digital media, innovation through uses, particularly in the field of cycling mobility, digital professional identities and professionalization in communication professions, temporalities in information-communication. He is also developing advanced thinking regarding research ethics in a digital context within the GER on ethics and digital technology in information-communication (GENIC), which he co-founded and scientifically co-leads.
Catherine Dominguès
Catherine Dominguès is a Senior Researcher at LASTIG (ENSG/IGN and Gustave Eiffel University), a specialist in natural language processing. She has notably worked on the analysis of feelings in the narratives of Spanish Republicans and their cartographic representation. She was also part of the PARVIS project, which aimed to analyze representations of the city of the future in science fiction narratives. Her current work is based on the Cahiers citoyens, a corpus of volunteered citizen’s words collected as part of the French Grand débat national and during the “gilets jaunes” movement.
Antoine Gaboriau
Antoine Gaboriau is a PhD student at CESPRA (EHESS), working on the consequences of implementing digital participation tools in local political- administrative systems in Barcelona, Geneva and Toulouse. He has also worked at Open Source Politics, a company specializing in digital participation platforms and the processing of data derived from them.
Bruno Lefèvre
Bruno Lefèvre holds a PhD in Information and Communication Sciences, attached to LabSIC-USPN. His research in socioeconomics and political economy focuses on the interdependencies between industrial strategies, public decision- making modalities, territories and civil society, focusing on the discourses and representations of these different actors.
Grégoire Lits
Grégoire Lits is a Lecturer in Media Sociology at the School of Communication and Journalism of Louvain and co-director of the Observatory for Research on Media and Journalism (ORM) of UCLouvain. His research focuses on the flow of information in public spaces in times of crisis, as well as how different public issues evolve over time. In this context, he has been conducting research for 15 years, analyzing the trajectory of various public problems such as: radioactive waste management, European policies to combat poverty, management of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic or efforts to combat misinformation at the European level.
Catherine Loneux
Catherine Loneux is a Professor in Information and Communication Sciences at Rennes 2 University. She is a researcher at PREFics, EA 7469 (multilingualisms, representations, French-language expressions – Information, communication, sociolinguistics). The communication of organizations and the communicational dimension of the dynamics of normative construction form the structure of her research journey. Her work focuses more specifically on “corporate social responsibility”, and seeks to analyze the socioeconomic, socio-legal, socio- discursive and socio-cognitive issues that these CSR phenomena underlie. Information–justification–ethical practices are studied using the analytical framework of the communication approach of organizations. To shed light on objects ranging from professional managerial environments in companies, to public institutions producing environmental and social discourses, the dynamics of standardization, the recompositions of power relations, meanings, writings and values are analyzed.
Anne Masseran
Anne Masseran is a Lecturer in Information and Communication Sciences at the University of Strasbourg, responsible for the M2 master’s program in international communication, ITIRI UDS.
Jeanne Pahun
Jeanne Pahun is a PhD in political science. Her thesis, defended in 2020, is entitled “How food policies change agriculture: a comparative analysis in three regions of France”. It analyzes the translation, progression and scope of the controversy embodied by the politicization of our food at the level of subnational governments. After studying the rise of the bioeconomy institutional watchword in European research policies and the operationalization of national agroecological policies, she is now a postdoctoral researcher at LISIS (INRAE), studying the role of downstream actors in the greening of agricultural producers’ practices in France.
Céline Pascual Espuny
Céline Pascual Espuny is a Professor of Information and Communication Sciences at Aix-Marseille University. She works on questions of behavioral change and on the circulation of environmental issues in public space. Her research has focused on sustainable development for more than 20 years. She has thus observed human and non-human mediations, socialization and rationalization processes at work in organizations. She is a member of the IMSIC research laboratory (Mediterranean Institute of Information and Communication Sciences, EA 7492). She co-leads the “Communication, Environment, Science and Society” study and research group.
Catherine Quiroga Cortés
Catherine Quiroga Cortés holds a PhD in Information and Communication Sciences at Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier University, attached to the Laboratory of Applied Studies and Research in Social Sciences (LERASS). In her doctoral thesis, she examines local information, considering its production and circulation as the result of relational and communicational processes. She is interested in the role played by socio-digital networks within local information ecosystems and questions the impact of these digital devices on the restructuring of the balance of power underlying the deployment of said processes.
Erika Riberi
Erika Riberi is a Lecturer in Information and Communication Sciences at the Faculty of Science of Aix-Marseille University, and a researcher at IMSIC (Aix- Marseille University – University of Toulon). She is interested in the presence and circulation of scientific discourses in public space (environmental communication, scientific mediation, science–society relations). She is responsible for the first year of the master’s course in scientific information and environmental mediation.
Brigitte Sebbah
Brigitte Sebbah is a Professor of Information and Communication Sciences at Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier University, within LERASS. Her research focuses on digital journalism, changes in journalistic practices, online information and social movements.
Yeny Serrano
Yeny Serrano is a Lecturer in Information and Communication Sciences at the University of Strasbourg and attached to LISEC (UR 2310). She is interested in the information discourses of the mass media and their place in contexts of controversy or armed conflicts.
Natacha Souillard
Natacha Souillard is a Lecturer in Information and Communication Sciences at Aix-Marseille University, within the IMSIC laboratory. Her research focuses on citizen participation and online social movements, the circulation of representations, discourses and narratives of environmental and ecological issues.
Bi Mathieu Tra
Bi Mathieu Tra holds a PhD in Information and Communication Sciences at the University of Franche-Comté and is a member of the ELLIADD laboratory. His thesis is titled “Polyphony on socio-digital media: the case of interactions on YouTube about the Amazon forest fires”. It was supervised by Jean-Claude Domenget and Orélie Desfriches-Doria.
Kimberley Vandenhole
Kimberley Vandenhole is a PhD student at the Socio-Environmental Dynamics Research Group (SONYA) at the Free University of Brussels and the Research Center for Sustainable Development at Ghent University. She studies environmental phenomena from socio-political and discursive perspectives in the context of morality and societal transformations. Interested in the socio-political and philosophical dimensions of environmental issues, she is currently focusing on analyzing the discourse of eco-shaming.
Albin Wagener
Albin Wagener is a Teacher–Researcher in language sciences. Specializing in digital, media and climate discourse analysis, he is attached to Rennes 2 University and INALCO. He also acts as a corpus study expert for foundations and companies.
Jean Zoungrana
Jean Zoungrana is an Associate Lecturer at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Strasbourg. He is attached to the SAGE (Societies, Actors, Government in Europe) laboratory (UMR 7363) and a member of the social sciences group of the Interdisciplinary Thematic Institute “Geosciences for the Energy Transition”. His work focuses on governmentality and citizen action in the context of consultation and controversy.
Introduction
Controversies and Tensions Around Ecological Transitions: For an Infocommunicational Approach
In recent years, the metaphor of the “transition”, which suggests a movement, a priori soft and smooth, from one state to another, has taken a growing place in both media and scientific discourses on the evolution of human societies. Beyond the apparent peacefulness associated with it, this term often appears in connection with issues associated with quite lively tensions and controversies, whether related to the ecology and habitability of the planet, energy policy, even the evolution of our social protection models or the evolution of our communication tools (when we talk about a society’s digital transition). It is this apparent contradiction between an imaginary of gentle evolution, of a natural change of state and the strong tensions that these changes arouse in the social body that this book attempts to elucidate by presenting different works of research from the information and communication fields, and more broadly the humanities and social sciences, focusing on the environmental and energy sphere.
The Dictionnaire critique de l’anthropocène (2020, p. 780) takes from Chabot (2015) the idea that we have entered the “age of transitions”, defined as a “fundamental reconfiguration of the functioning and organization of the system, faced with a tipping point”. But the notion of an ecological transition, unlike others such as “demographic transition”, indicates not so much a phenomenon as an “intention”, a “watchword prescribing practices” (ibid.), used by a wide range of actors (activists, institutional, professional, technical, political, scientific), just as for the “digital transition”.
Like the latter, the ecological transition describes a process of “transformation during which a system passes from one regime of equilibrium to another” (Bourg and Papaux 2015, p. 780, cited by Monnoyer-Smith (2017)). The term is particularly linked to the “transition towns” movement and the transition network, a movement initiated by Rob Hopkins in England in 2005. More broadly, the notion of transition has become one of these “formulas” (Planque 2010) used today in discourse dealing with the ecological situation, its consequences and perspectives for action in the political, media, economic, social, spiritual and cultural spheres (as well as the scientific, with recent research on sustainability transitions). This formula indicates a complex set of values, scientific notions, projects, projections, actions and practices involved with the transition from the current state towards a more “sustainable”, lasting and desirable condition for humans and living beings, thus partly replacing the semantics of sustainable development (Theys 2020), and also implying “the resorption of social inequalities or environmental injustices” (Dictionnaire critique de l’anthropocène, 2020, p. 780), as recalled by the notion of “just transition” also present in the text of the Paris climate agreement. In France and Spain, for example, there exist Ministries of Ecological Transition, even if the names quickly change.
The positive, dynamic and promising connotations of this type of expression (different from those of other expressions such as collapse, therefore with potential for euphemization) certainly help the dissemination and use of these formulas. Different actors therefore appropriate this expression within different logics and perspectives, such as those of long-term public policies, that of associations and movements oriented towards the commons and the local, or even that of large companies (and more particularly in the energy sector). Transition makes it possible to build a positive framework, linked to the discourse of innovation, of design thinking, of participation, etc. This diversity and heterogeneity – which does not deny the existence of a “family resemblance” between the different uses – is interrogated by research in information and communication or even discourse analysis.
For its part, the expression “energy transition” is defined by the World Energy Council (2014) as “a significant structural change in an energy system”. The current transition to renewable energy is the latest energy transition, and it is driven directly by the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in this era of ongoing global climate and environmental crisis. However, as the Dictionnaire critique de l’anthropocène reminds us, “the energy transition is not determined in its solutions, nor in the modalities of its implementation” (2020, p. 783). Different, more or less radical models and perspectives intersect, integrating ecological issues to a greater or lesser extent. From this point of view, the energy transition and its challenges “question our relationship to the Earth” (Dictionnaire critique de l’anthropocène 2020, p. 784) and therefore the self-definition of societies. Here too, there is material for work in information and communication sciences (Gilbert et al. 2019) and more widely in the humanities and social sciences.
This book, the result of a colloquium held at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCLouvain), Belgium, on December 16 and 17, 2021, aims to question the discourses and communicational phenomena related to ecological and energy transitions – we explicitly use the plural to indicate the complexity of the subject in question. The aim is to focus on the polemical dimension of the communication surrounding these transitions – controversies, polemics, discussions, debates – which mobilizes verbal language and any other type of semiotic mechanism (particularly images, both still and moving). We thus place ourselves within the lineage of works which have successfully defined and mobilized the notion of controversy to analyze the processes of social evolution, such as those of Allan Mazur on the dynamics of technological controversies (Mazur 1981), those which have developed from French pragmatic sociology (Boltanski and Thévenot 1991; Callon et al. 2001; Latour 2006), or even more recent ones which have developed in the field of environmental information and communication in the French-speaking world (see, for example, Carlino and Stein (2019)).
Transitions and the tensions and controversies surrounding them are objects of multimodal discursive appropriation (textual, verbal, visual) by multiple actors (Audet 2014). Information and communication sciences are then called to contribute to better understanding of the semiotic, rhetorical, narrative and discursive forms mobilized in these discourses. The controversies around transitions are indeed powerful “semiotic engines”, which activate the production and circulation of discourses. The notion of controversy is first of all a “descriptor” allowing the consideration of a set of particular real social situations, which embody “transitions” based on the communication activities of social actors. In this sense, controversies are above all social phenomena, interactional episodes. As Pierre Lascoumes notes (Lascoumes 2010, p. 172), “[they] can be defined as sequences of discussion and confrontation between divergent points of view on a subject”. Controversy is a moment in history during which actors create confrontations between their points of view on a social issue.
The definition of controversy as a process of construction suggests that it fulfills another objective. Beyond its descriptive character, it is also an analytical operator bearing a relationship to particular expert knowledge. It allows the researcher to analyze society, to construct an object of study from a particular angle and following a defined method. This method is often associated with that of “deploying controversies” (Latour 2006, p. 33). This methodological posture rests on a basic foundation close to the “actor-network” posture proposed by Latour, which “claims to be better able to find order after having let the actors deploy the whole range of controversies in which they find themselves immersed. […] In other words, the task of defining and ordering the social must be left to the actors themselves, instead of being taken over by the investigator” (Latour 2006, p. 33). In this sense, it is a question of “unfolding” certain particular controversies in order to open certain “black boxes” linked to expert or lay discourses on “transitions”. It is a question of how experts and laypersons interact and enter into dialogue when it comes to defining the issues of transitions.
Another objective of the notion of controversy is more normative and assumes the positive nature for society of the deployment (by actors and researchers) of controversies in different fields of public action (Callon et al. 2011). In this sense, controversies are seen as a democratic procedural model characterized by a double questioning of the delegation of decisions to scientists and politicians. As a collective decision-making procedure, they would then be “paths to a better articulation between science and society” (Lascoumes 2002, p. 72). Some research highlights how controversies linked to transition issues, as a decision-making procedure, come to produce solutions that are considered socially and technically “robust” (e.g. Anderies et al. 2004) or with “social acceptability” (e.g. Wüstenhagen et al. 2007). They also question the links between the evolution of the debate in the public and media sphere, and the evolution of the modes of constitution of democratic legitimacy (Rosanvallon 2008). Alongside classic approaches centered on the analysis of public participation in democratic or sociotechnical decisions, others question these notions of robustness and social acceptability based on the study of communication processes or participatory or deliberative processes underlying controversies linked to transition issues.
Finally, it should be noted that environmental controversies, which are at the heart of debates related to “transitions”, have particular characteristics: the long time necessary for their resolution (Lascoume 1994; Blanck 2016), their transversal and intersectoral character (Lascoumes 1994) and finally the change in decision-making scale that they require as well as their multi-stakeholder character (Gouldson 2009; see also Carlino (2018) and Lits (2020)). These characteristics make them an important field for democratic innovation and for the development of an important set of “new instruments of public action”, as well as new modes of production of legitimacy. It is therefore interesting to look at the communicational aspects of this management of time, of this intersectoral, multi-actor and multi-level as well as the transnational character of environmental controversies.
The chapters comprising this volume develop some of the axes and perspectives mentioned above. The first two immerse us in the French agricultural sector, a world affected by tensions linked to the demands of the ecological transition.
In Chapter 1, François Allard-Huver questions the mediatization and circulation of the concept of agribashing and the semiopolitical implications of its use by certain actors in the French agricultural world, in a context of ecological and agricultural transition. More precisely, the author questions, firstly, the way in which the concept of agribashing emerged and established itself as a real formula (Krieg-Planque 2010; Simon 2015) in defending a certain agricultural model. He then observes the media coverage and circulation of this term, to question, finally, how it appears to disqualify those actors in civil society who mobilize a discourse critical of intensive agriculture and promoting the ecological transition. The corpus is based on the study of the French daily and regional press between 2018 and 2021, as well as on semiopolitical analysis of the supporting discourses of agribashing and the material forms of their inscription in the public sphere: reports, official documents and communication materials produced as part of the establishment of the “Déméter” cell, created within the French national gendarmerie to prosecute attacks and intrusions against agricultural operations. Does talk of agribashing amount to placing discourses around changes in the agricultural model and the agricultural transition in a comminatory and agonistic register? Do the polemics over critical discourses and civil society actions against part of the agricultural world reflect opposing visions of the ecological transition that nothing seems able to reconcile?
Chapter 2, written by Jeanne Pahun, takes up the theme of agribashing. To fight against this supposed collective disavowal of the agricultural world, hegemonic representatives of the agricultural sector, such as the FNSEA federation, use different strategies. One of them is to participate in the currently booming construction of urban food policies in order to convey a positive image of agriculture to urban centers, places where the population is concentrated and opinion is formed. Even if the type of agriculture supported within urban food policies (organic and diversified farming, run by new rural residents, including farmstays, etc.) diverges from the agricultural development promoted by the FNSEA and its representatives, the latter have a strategic interest in participating and collaborating in it. For them, it is a question of working on constructing a new image of the agricultural world, closer to the new expectations of citizens. This communication strategy contributes to the establishment of “showcase agriculture” around the cities displaying a transformation of the agricultural sector, which remains marginal at the level of the national territory. This chapter is based on a political science thesis on the construction and deployment of agricultural components of territorial food policies, particularly those of the cities and metropolises of Rennes, Montpellier and Strasbourg. Around 30 interviews conducted between 2017 and 2019 with key players in these policies constitute the empirical material for this work.
The following three chapters provide a better understanding of the tensions that exist when the ecological transition takes place in specific territories, where different interests and values intersect and sometimes clash, particularly around development projects.
In Chapter 3, through the analysis of 15 contested development projects in Belgium and France, Bruno Lefèvre shows that the territorialization strategies of industrial players in sectors as varied as the digital or leisure industries, supported by public decision-makers, lead to their own questioning by civil society. Phenomena of repoliticization of local territories and their actors situate these projects, initially presented as relatively anecdotal, within a complex set of contemporary social and environmental challenges. The meaning of these projects with regard to these major issues and integrated at scales other than the local territory becomes subject to ideological conflicts which the consultation bodies fail to animate. Discourses, media and digital social networks contribute to making these conflicts visible, to identifying residents and activists, and to enabling forms of cooperation on a national and international scale, in favor of a new balance of power between civil society and public decision-makers.
Actors in the French mid-mountain areas, through their environmental communication highlighting their role as mediators, increasingly position themselves as leaders in a transition focused on conciliations and links. Chapter 4, written by Amélie Coulbaut-Lazzarini, aims to understand how such communication can enable moving from a perception of environmental crisis, of tension, to the construction of a harmonious future, between individuals, groups of individuals and linked non-human actors. From a methodological point of view, the results presented in this chapter are based, on the one hand, on the analysis of the communication documents produced or co-produced by the Bauges RNP (Regional Natural Park), and, on the other, by field surveys. The programs studied, supported by RNPs, place the mid-mountain environment at the heart of mechanisms of environmental communication. Human/non-human interactions are involved in the very structuring of communication mechanisms, where the ability to perceive otherness is the basis of the envisaged social project. The communicational strategies enacted by actors, particularly public actors, on issues of the relationship to the living world are based on explorations of types of mechanism that create links between the public and the natural environment. These focus not on tension, but on living together, on cooperation. They anchor themselves in experience, in the sense of the philosopher John Dewey, in order to explore links. To return to the path pursued in this chapter, it seems that the transition investigated here is a shift from a perspective of continuous growth in our Western societies to a perspective of balanced systemic co-evolution. The study of the mechanisms used by the actors mentioned situates environmental communication in a paradigmatic transition where relatedness, as a complex system of links, becomes the central element of societal dynamics.
Mikael Chambru, Cécilia Claeys and Quentin Daveau author Chapter 5, dedicated to the French mountain region. This chapter, in fact, analyzes the trajectory of a scientific tourism project as a possible lever for territorial transition, responding to the double observation of the exhaustion of the “white gold” model and the mountain region’s early display of signs of climate change. This involves the creation of a museographic space within the Dévoluy massif, in the Hautes-Alpes department. Based on a qualitative field survey conducted in 2019 and 2020, this chapter shows how a potentially eco-compatible form of territorial innovation based on revitalization of the historic village through the enhancement of a local cultural, environmental and scientific heritage is sliding towards a strategy of strengthening modernist tourism centered on the alpine ski resort.
Chapter 6
