Live sober

This work, written in the continuity of a precedent entitled Political daily: feminism, ecology, subsistencepublished in 2021, is based on an ethnography and an ethnocomplement made in 2013-2014 with a couple of Bakers-Paysans of Valondes (Myriam and Florian), their child and animals cohabiting on a plot of 9.19 hectares. It is also based on a rich multi -site survey of alternatives (inhabitants in Valondes and elsewhere in France) carried out for ten years and bringing together 112 interviews.

This text is a double manifesto. It is first of all a fight against stereotypes associated with what the author calls “ muffled struggles “Of Valondes, and more broadly to” alternative “, The populations installed in rural areas and engaged in ecological lifestyles. Thanks to the study of “ Puff pastry (of their) ordinary gestures “(P. 17), Geneviève Pruvost endeavors to deconstruct preconceived ideas on these populations and nuances their sociological profile. Second, the work defends the epistemological contribution of qualitative methods, in particular ethnocompel. The considerable place given to the transcription of ethnography reveals the requirement of this method (relationships of confidence with the respondents, rigor in the taking of notes, engagement in the field, etc.) and the finesse of analysis it brings. The author claims that ethnocompeability is a “ ecological investigation method by definition “, because “ Interactions are not studied there in isolation, they are dated in a whole environment (P.476).

A methodological innovation: ethnocompel

These two ambitions are complementary. Ethnocomplepability is displayed as a means of making an alternative lifestyle concrete and therefore credible. Tell, counting, all the exchanges of a household (a “ place with inhabitants and inhabitants who are not necessarily related, nor exclusively human »P. 13) Allows to show “ that this lifestyle is at hand and accessible to small scholarships (P.25).

After having presented the construction of its object of research and its methodology (p. 5-33), Geneviève Pruvost cuts off its analysis in three parts: the ethnographic description (p. 34-265) ; The exposure of the results of ethnocompeability (p. 266-348) ; The analysis drawn from the surveys (p. 349-470). The first part is a fairly unique example of an ethnographic newspaper, because this field work is rarely the subject of a publication. The researcher’s notebook is often considered personal, even intimate, and only chosen passages are generally published. Geneviève Pruvost, she faithfully transcribes all the details of her investigation: situations, discussions, and key moments, as well as her feelings and her questions. It allows us not only to assess as closely as possible the lifestyle of the household, but also presents an initiation to the qualitative and ethnographic investigation, to its advantages and its difficulties.

The second part precisely exposes the accounting of the exchanges of Myriam and Florian in the form of tables and diagrams. It makes an inventory of all animals, all objects, tools, working hours. The tables are used to count all the expenses and to compare them at prices found in the “-consumption production system” conventional In order to show, very concretely, the viability of an alternative lifestyle. This requires less financial contributions than the purchase of a hard house and a more classic installation in rural areas, because it is also based on recovery, donations, barter … This accounts leads to a general scheme of all the exchanges of the household (p. 342-343).

Sobriety is not the count !

The third part offers a sociological analysis in seven chapters. Some results seem particularly interesting to us. First of all, the book nuance the a priori on the social origins of alternatives. The Valondes group (around fifty people) offers relatively large social heterogeneity and most of its members come from rural backgrounds and often from the region, therefore not having a report “ above ground “In the territory, as the stereotype of” neo-rural Environmentalists. The author disputes the idea that the commitment of these alternatives would come from a downgrading, stressing that this commitment is not caused by an impossibility of social ascent, but rather by a refusal of it and by a “ Municipality membership of the world of alternatives (P. 360). Their residential journey and their geographic origins are decisive to understand their commitment: they are either “ Children of the country “, Either children” of rural DIY “, Or” keys to everything (P. 361).

Their commitments are also influenced by 1) a family socialization through a religious education and/or an associative practice ; 2) The experience of a training trip outside Europe.

The alternative lifestyle does not mean isolation in relation to the rest of the territory. In fact, the daily actions of the household of Myriam and Florian are structured at three distinct scales. The household focuses on a daily basis “ The bringing together of the principles of justice and equality For its human and non-human members (p. 355). In regional and inter -municipal scales, Myriam and Florian participate in a “ Massage (of) local dynamics (p. 356) and build a network of interdependencies with other alternatives from the region, with neighboring organic farmers and by participating in local professional groups. On a larger scale, they participate in social movements having a national resonance, for example in the defense of the Zad of Notre Dame des Landes.

Integration into these multi -purpose networks allows the group of valondes alternatives to adopt specific land strategies. Those who have the opportunity and the means to buy a plot have a “ Quick installation tactics “, To then make these spaces available to the rest of the community, in a logic of informal redistribution which allows” Dissociate the land status of land uses (P. 373). The provision of land and different uses within the group are based on confidence, informal agreements and complementarities between nomadic people (temporary facilities) and people installed in the long term.

Geneviève Pruvost still shows that “ Voluntary sobriety does not imply counting, but on the contrary a profusion of objects (P. 400). Myriam and Florian thus maintain a lifestyle that defends the multiplication of objects and relationships in the living, contradicting the cliché according to which an ecological lifestyle would necessarily induce deprivation. This way of life and work also promotes a better gender distribution of tasks and working hours (for example concerning the education of children at which the dedicated time is better distributed within the couple), and a more fluid organization of activities. The search for autonomy, contrary to what one might think, is not a search for sustainability, but the acceptance of the provisional. It thus requires anticipation and organization as well as the sense of proportionality, while offering “ a change in sensory diet and perception of the world “(P. 399) for” Reveal a chosen modernity (P. 406).

Finally, Geneviève Pruvost demonstrates that ecology is not divided between a depoliticized domestic ecology and a politicized ecology (that is to say connected to social movements), but that on the contrary the felted struggles have several “ contact zones With frontal struggles.

What future for alternative lifestyles ?

Since the objective of the work is to do justice to the slightest gesture, this report can only affect the richness and finesse of its words and we recommend those interested in the subject of reading the text as a whole. It is an important work both to understand the way of life of alternatives and to think about qualitative methods in the social sciences. The surveys that found this book having been carried out in 2013 and 2014 in a relatively little characterized territory (due to anonymization), we would like to have more details on the socio-spatial context of Valondes and on recent developments in the local agricultural and rural environment. Indeed, organic farming, which participates in the interdependence network of these alternatives, has developed a lot in the 2010s and contrasting depending on the regions. This agriculture was then weakened after the COVVI-19 pandemic with inflation and the increase in food prices.

In addition, installation aid structures, such as the land of links, and social movements, such as the uprisings of the earth, have emerged. It would be interesting to see how this new national context, coupled with local developments, was able to have (positive or negative) effects in the lifestyle and the household of Myriam and Florian. The author also underlines in the text several emerging difficulties at the time of her investigation: access to the limited land, precariousness of certain installations, exhaustion of Myriam and Florian, non-extensible time which prevents the development of the agricultural model of polyculture-breeding …