From dissensus to collective project building
Imagining and carrying out sociotechnical projects in participatory action research: an example in viticulture

During the work on vine health and pesticide use, three categories of players stood out for their disagreement over measures to ensure vine health:

• conventional winegrowers, whose strategy is to control fungi, viruses and insects using synthetic pesticides;

• Organic and biodynamic winegrowers, with biodynamic winegrowers believing that the best strategy is to stimulate the vine's defences;

• researchers, who usually conduct their experiments in laboratories.

The conclusions reached by each of the first two groups of players are based on convictions and assertions that do not "qualify" as scientific proof. The third group's conclusions come up against the difficult problem of moving from conclusions obtained in a restricted, artificial environment (the laboratory...