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Quand les acteurs se mêlent d'ontologie
Abstract
When actors meddle in ontology
The French geographic indications - the « Appellations d’Origine Contrôlée » - go again through a crisis. Since a long time, the « terroir » which they protect are polemical; it is suspected to be nothing but an imaginary construction. But this time, the vintners themselves denounce the permissiveness of its regulations: for them, terroir are something real, but its regulation has to be reinforced. This article analyses the different conceptions of terroir by « objective » sciences, vintners defending a renewal of terroir and the public administration. The authorities require that a public certification rest upon criteria defining the presence of terroir. Since objective sciences do not seem to be able to stabilize any list of such defining criteria, objective sciences are inclined to conclude to the illusory nature of terroir, a « pure » subjective or social construction. Yet producers – as well as their clients – do not experience trouble in evaluating the wines terroir quality. It even supports commercial qualitative differentiation strategies. Should we agree with the scientists and denounce the vintners and drinkers mistake? By analyzing how proof of terroir is implemented the article show that part of the controversy rests upon the ontology of the notion of terroir. For the administration terroir must be a “thing” which presence can be guaranteed by objective tests provided by science. For vintners it is a constantly produced and reproduced expression, impossible to definitively stabilize a priori and nevertheless evaluated ex post. In both cases the guarantee of the presence of terroir does not rest upon the same implementation of proof. The “thing” shaped objects are autonomous and predetermined. They can be observed from “outside” without enduring perturbations of their nature. On the contrary, “product”-shaped objects cannot be analysed independently from their elaboration process. They are the result of an a priori uncertain quest and do not fit into predefined criteria. The article follows in trying to make this difference and some of its consequences more precise: does it only resort to a philosophical hypothesis on the world nature? Are the two ontologies mutually exclusive? Do they require methodological precautions?
... Les sciences agroclimatiques essaient de mettre en lumière des indicateurs facilement utilisables pour définir le terroir par ses limites (tiers exclus de Aristote) permettant de discriminer « facilement » un produit de « terroir ». D'autres approches tendent à montrer que le terroir est une construction « culturelle » (Demossier, 2001 ;Bérard et Marchenay, 2007 ;Teil, 2011). Le terroir est aussi une construction sociale, un objet dont la réalité et les contours sont continuellement redéfinis par les acteurs du territoire (Hinnewinkel, 2007(Hinnewinkel, , 2004, mais c'est aussi une forme n'ayant pas d'existence propre (van Leeuwen et Seguin, 2006). ...
Steep slope vineyards are perfect examples of human adaptations to environemental constraints. Through time, some of these slopes, such as the Lavaux or the Cinque Terre vineyards, have succeeded "in climbing" to a high level of recognition by being integrated into the very closed circle of Unesco World Heritage sites. Today, the slope is an important factor and determines the choice of the vine-grower in the maintenance of his plots and land transactions. We propose an ontology of the steep slope vineyard’s landscape, which we combine with field observations and a modeling approach built on Agent Based Modeling (ABM) to explore social and landscape mechanisms in action on these territories.
... Source d'un important renouvellement technique, les efforts des vignerons pour « retrouver » l'expression perdue de leur terroir ont tout d'abord amené un accroissement de la variabilité gustative des vins, à l'origine d'importants conflits au sein des AOP (Teil, 2011). Avec cette dernière approche qui privilégie aujourd'hui la résilience de la vigne, c'est au contraire sa capacité à ne pas réagir aux changements qui est recherchée : ...
La viticulture en appellation d’origine protégée (AOP) est considérée d’autant plus sensible au changement climatique qu’elle s’impose des contraintes réglementaires de localisation, d’approvisionnement, de pratiques et de qualité des vins. Ces obligations vouent-elles les AOP à une disparition rapide faute de pouvoir s’adapter aux changements à venir ? Bien que l’anticipation de long terme du changement climatique ne soit pas vraiment à l’ordre du jour, les vignerons adaptent tous en continu leurs pratiques aux variations des conditions atmosphériques. Une enquête par entretiens auprès de vignerons angevins et alsaciens montre néanmoins qu’ils divergent dans la conception et la mise en œuvre de cette adaptation, notamment au moment de distinguer ce qui fait l’identité d’AOP à maintenir et les ressources acceptables pour y parvenir. De plus, cette enquête pointe l’émergence d’une façon originale de penser l’adaptation qui délègue à la vigne la charge de la bonne adaptation, défiant ainsi les plus sombres pronostics. Pour y parvenir, les producteurs expérimentent et renouvellent leurs pratiques vitivinicoles afin de rendre leurs vignes « résistantes » au changement et qu’elles continuent d’exprimer leur terroir et de manifester les qualités de leurs AOP.
... Au sens informatique, mais surtout de Castoriadis, qui souligne la dualité d'une organisation qui classe sans cesse, sans jamais épuiser les possibilités de classement, parce que le monde n'est pas épuisable par ces classements, ou des sociologues des sciences comme GenevièveTeil (2011). ...
... Le goûteur et le goûté sont tour à tour et 21 Les descriptions que Bao Teng donne des arômes des fruits paraissent très sommaires aux clients occidentaux habitués à la pompe rhétorique qui entoure parfois la consommation de vins. 22 L'exemple fournit ici une contradiction intéressante à l'approche du goût qui a été développée en sociologie de l'innovation (Teil, 2009(Teil, , 2011Hennion & Teil, 2013) et qui fait reposer la charge de l'épreuve sur le goûteur. Si ces travaux ont montré, de façon salutaire, que le goût est une simultanément sujet et objet, ils s'arriment l'un à l'autre dans un mouvement que les humains apprennent à susciter mais qu'ils ne sont pas seuls à délimiter, un mouvement auquel ils doivent aussi savoir s'abandonner. ...
This article examines food/human relationships from the perspective of sensitivity (smell and taste). It has an epistemological aim, since it proposes an analytical framework within which to consider the continuum between a phenomenological and contingent relationship to food on the one hand, and an abstract relationship to them on the other hand. To achieve this, the article uses two original approaches to the relationship to the environment and the material world, which it aims to reconcile: Francisco Varela's theory of enaction and Tim Ingold's critique of the notion of materiality. We use this reconciliation to posit that the modes of subjectivation of tastes and smells are fundamentally a matter of positioning the bodies in relation to foods with which they are intimately linked, depending on whether humans seek to clarify the relationship or on the contrary to explore a mixture of possibilities ("to inhabit it"). Reality most often sits in between, somewhere on the axis of a continuum that this paper attempts to characterize. This anthropological reflection is supported by first-hand historical and ethnographic data from surveys carried out in Southeast Asia on a fruit with a highly contrasting reputation: the durian.
... Les sciences agroclimatiques essaient de mettre en lumière des indicateurs facilement utilisables pour définir le terroir par ses limites (tiers exclus de Aristote) permettant de discriminer « facilement » un produit de « terroir ». D'autres approches tendent à montrer que le terroir est une construction « culturelle » (Demossier, 2001 ;Bérard et Marchenay, 2007 ;Teil, 2011). Le terroir est aussi une construction sociale, un objet dont la réalité et les contours sont continuellement redéfinis par les acteurs du territoire (Hinnewinkel, 2007(Hinnewinkel, , 2004, mais c'est aussi une forme n'ayant pas d'existence propre (van Leeuwen et Seguin, 2006). ...
... Nous prenons ainsi au sérieux l'idée émise par Tim Berners-Lee, selon laquelle les architectes du Web (et Tim Berners-Lee au premier chef, qui en est l'inventeur) sont des « ingénieurs philosophiques » (Monnin, 2012bet Livet, 2012. La solidité de leur « métaphysique expérimentale » (Latour, 2007et Teil, 2011 s'atteste quotidiennement au vu des épreuves sans cesse renouvelées que subit le Web 3 . Nous partons du principe, tant méthodologique qu'ontologique, selon lequel celle-ci n'a rien à envier à celle des philosophes, étendant de la sorte le principe de symétrie, ou ce que Brian Smith nomme le principe d'irréduction (Smith, 1998, p. 77.) 4 , à la métaphysique elle-même, celle des philosophes comme celle des ingénieurs philosophiques 5 . ...
Ce travail de « philosophie empirique » s’appuie sur la métaphysique expérimentale des architectes du Web pour explorer les modes d’objectivation que celui-ci met en jeu. Le Web apparaît comme un effort permettant de repenser la notion d’objet en tant que « ressource ». Plateforme de publication de ressources, le Web ressaisit cette notion hors de toute matérialité. L’objet en tant qu’objet est abstrait mais il n’en rassemble pas moins de très nombreux médiateurs autour de lui. Ces médiateurs fixent les épreuves et, partant, les conditions d’existence que doivent satisfaire ces objets au terme d’enquêtes réalisées de manière participative. C’est en particulier le rôle assigné à Wikipédia à l’échelle de l’architecture du Web.
La production de vin est une activité ancienne, qui remonterait à plus de 7 000 ans. Déjà dans l’antiquité de nombreuses sculptures mettent en scène Dionysos, le dieu grec de la vigne, du vin et des excès. Dans le marché viticole mondial, la France tient une place particulière puisqu’elle est le deuxième producteur de vin et le premier pays exportateur. La Bourgogne est, quant à elle un territoire viticole à part en Europe et en France. Il s’agit d’un petit vignoble qui jouit pourtant d’une place importante dans la hiérarchie des réputations des territoires de vin, grâce à ses célèbres crus et son image prestigieuse.Depuis quelques années, on remarque le développement d’une nouvelle forme de tourisme lié au vin. L’œnotourisme comme on le nomme le plus souvent, regroupe l’ensemble des activités touristiques, culturelles et commerciales en lien avec le vin ou se déroulant sur un territoire viticole. Le tourisme vitivinicole se développe depuis la fin du XX° siècle en France et en Bourgogne mais il y prend racine bien avant. En partant des premières grandes crises viticoles du XIX° siècle (phylloxéra, maladies, crises de consommation et/ou production…), on perçoit les premiers signes d’une construction de l’imaginaire régional autour de la gastronomie et du vin, image qui jusqu’à présent n’y faisait pas ou peu référence. Puis, dans la première moitié du XX° siècle, alors que le phylloxéra et les maladies sont contrôlés, de nouveaux bouleversements viennent perturber le secteur. En réponse aux ventes difficiles, les acteurs prennent le pari de valoriser leur territoire à travers cette image d’une région conviviale, créant ou réhabilitant des fêtes, des évènements, des mises en scène. Le vin, son patrimoine, sa culture, son folklore, sont alors utilisés par les acteurs pour construire un monde social mis en scène, légitimé par des références au passé, à la tradition, à l’authenticité. Ce n’est pas encore de l’œnotourisme à proprement parler mais ce sont bien ces actions, placées dans un contexte particulier, qui sont à l’origine de l’image contemporaine d’un vignoble authentique et traditionnel, que les acteurs construisent comme garants de la qualité des vins. Dans la deuxième partie du XX° siècle, alors que le marché se mondialise, les vins dits des « nouveaux vignobles » font leur entrée. Les pays européens, producteurs historiques, gardent les places les plus valorisées mais voient l’écart se réduire avec les nouveaux vins. Ces derniers souffrent d’un déficit de réputation et les acteurs de ces derniers cherchent à se construire une image viticole. En créant des destinations touristiques centrées autour du vin, ces acteurs vont développer une image viticole pour ces vignobles et les placer comme de sérieux compétiteurs sur le marché mondial. Face à cette nouvelle concurrence, les pays européens, soucieux de préserver leur place dans la hiérarchie, vont eux aussi développer des activités touristiques à la fin du XX° siècle. L’œnotourisme est également un monde social à part entière, où des acteurs de divers groupes professionnels cohabitent, créent et entretiennent des liens d’interdépendance. Ces acteurs sont parfois issus de la viticulture mais sont aussi des professionnels du tourisme, de l’hôtellerie, de la restauration ou de nouveaux acteurs qui font leur apparition en même temps que l’œnotourisme.À travers l’analyse des réseaux et systèmes de relations, il est possible de comprendre les dynamiques des interactions entre acteurs et groupes tout en étudiant les discours par lesquels les compétences et valeurs de ces acteurs se placent comme éléments de reconnaissance des différents rôles sociaux. En identifiant plusieurs termes clés dans le discours des acteurs (l’authenticité, le patrimoine ou les compétences), nous pouvons analyser ces systèmes et comprendre comment fonctionnent les différents groupes professionnels qui s’investissent dans l’œnotourisme et comment ils se construisent une identité propre.
Cet article aborde les engagements pluriels de vignerons et vigneronnes suisses dans les lignes de conduite de la viticulture biodynamique. Je montrerai par le terrain qu’un segment de la population vigneronne adapte et module de manière créative les prescriptions émanant de figures d’experts alternatifs. Ce faisant, les vignerons négocient une distance pragmatique vis-à-vis de la filiation de la biodynamie avec le mouvement anthroposophique.
This essay questions the notion of the land (terroir) as a production mode of heritage. Examining the case of Québec, and particularly that of the Laurentides area, it highlights the heritage processes at work in the "mouvement du terroir," or land movement. It illustrates how heritage and heritage imaginations are contributing to the construction of the regions and the new rurality in Québec by means of new productions, new products or produces, and agroheritage routes. The modes of territorialization at work reveal the attempts that are made to create new referents and new markings in order to define the regional space. In short, from a critical perspective, this essay shows the fruitful nature of the calls to heritage.
See to know
This article considers the way in which the technology of relational databases is used to produce, articulate and distribute knowledge and information on a set of diseases qualified as “rare”, on a European scale. Looking at the genesis and evolution of the socio-technical apparatus over three decades, it analyses its material and symbolic foundations. The authors’ ethnographic study highlights the importance of negotiation, co-design and sharing of “views” on the data. All of these are essential operations which determine the work of a variety of actors. They also help to maintain cooperation and ensure that knowledge deemed to be reliable and relevant is put into circulation. This process of construction of “views” is interpreted as an investment of form, the dynamics of which reflects original and evolving ways of working, knowing and engaging with regard to rare diseases, in so far as it is involved in shaping them. More generally, this contribution to a sociology of databases highlights the fecundity of a view-based approach for understanding the integration of multiple perspectives held by diverse social worlds.
In French higher education, a national law (law ‘Grenelle 1’ of 2009) requires institutions to have a ‘green plan’, setting the sustainable development strategy for the various assignments. This article, which presents the results of an empirical study of training in agricultural engineering, aims to identify opportunities and difficulties that allow the definition of this strategy about the training mission. This study, which analyzed data collected from institution, teachers and students at the end of training, has a triple interest. First, the diagnostic methodology is original, with teachers, through observation of teaching team meetings, and with students by administering a questionnaire to assess the knowledge on sustainable development at the end of training. Moreover, the results show that a training strategy for sustainable development requires to build collectively the processus within each higher education institution. Finally, the integration of sustainable development in higher education questions the educational content beyond the disciplinary concepts and tools, and can better explain the values to be shared within the institution.
This article examines the concept of terroir—a French word that captures the correspondence between the physical and human features of a place and the character of its agricultural products. Tied to the protection of economic rents threatened by competition and fraud, the practice of classifying certain lands, grapes, and properties both substantively and qualitatively has become the organizing principle of the entire French wine industry. Often derided as snobbish monopolistic practices by New World producers, the notion terroir in France and its rejection in America both exemplify how the "principles of vision and division" of the natural world are always intertwined with the "principles of vision and division" of the social world. The present article discusses these affinities through an analysis of wine classifications in the French regions of Bordeaux and Burgundy, and some of the critiques they have given rise to, in the United States especially.
Yeast, bacteria, species and strains play a key role in the winemaking process by producing metabolites, which determine wine sensorial qualities. Therefore microbial population enumeration, species identification and strain discrimination from berry surface at harvest to storage in bottle are fundamental. The microbial diversity and significance of its variation according to the estate localization have not really been thoroughly considered in literature. This is the focus of this work. That should be of great interest because the spontaneous microbial population dynamics associated with a wine producing estate provide information on what might be considered as the method to obtain specific terroir typed wine. The both use of conventional microbiological methods like microbial population enumeration on nutritive selective media and efficient molecular tools of species identification like PCR-RFLP for yeasts and PCR-DGGE for bacteria and strains discrimination have demonstrated significant microbial differences between different estates localized in the Bordeaux area. Theses results appeared very interesting since certain microbial species are clearly specific of certain estates, in particular the bacterium Pediococcus parvulus, and also some strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, of Oenococcus oeni and Brettanomyces bruxellensis. Within an estate this specificity persists from one year to another. These differences observed suggest that the indigenous winemaking processes can contribute to the specificity of the wines produced on the various estates.. That concludes to the hypothesis of a microbial part in wines speficities. © Vigne et Vin Publications Internationales (Bordeaux, France).
Specific quality, local governance and systems of innovation.
There is currently a consensus among the agricultural professional officials, the development and research organizations' executives and the rural economists about the emergence of a new model of production. This latter is rather unanimously described as a shift from a «productivist logic» to a «logic of quality», with the taking into account of a diversified demand and opportunities linked to the transformations of the rural areas functions (an agriculture of service), of the relationships with the environment (a durable agriculture ), and of national and regional development objectives (a «citizen agriculture» one could say). In the analysis of the technical aspects of that transformation North-European and North-American authors put the stress on biotechnology and, at the same time, on the economy's globalization whereas the French, Spanish and Italians are more interested in the normalization of the specific quality products, which, for them, goes along with the international integration of the markets.
The aim of this paper is to emphasize the role of territory and as corporate as professional networks in agrifood system of innovation and in this shift. The localization of economic activities implies a cooperative process in order to build up specific resources that is supported by localized institutional networks. The taking into account of the innovation systems' territorial dimension implies the analysis of the part held by firms and local but also sectorial, professional or «global» institutions that take part in the innovation processes. This paper is limited to the question about the transformation of the innovation management modes and the institutional mechanisms of normalization and qualification of products. First, we deal, in a general way, with the relationships between innovation and territory, we then analyze the consequences of the European integration on competition, according to the different forms of normalization. Then, after noting the ambivalence of the new regulation and its enforcement, we show that a great and relatively stable diversity of the production modes of the specific quality products, basically corresponds to that regulation. We deal with the diversity of the innovation systems and the specific qualities production in accordance with the three dimensions, technology, market and territorial governance, after reviewing the different public and professional systems that manage the world of products of specific quality. Compromises between actors provide a contractual management of innovation systems' transformation and an «adjustment» between the micro and macro levels. But, it is not a convergence process towards sectorial models. Among «appellation d'origine» cheeses and «Red Label» poultry brand, one can distinguishes some «typical» produces with narrow market (with «connoisseur» patronage), some differencied «industrial» produces and some featuring intermediate combinations, like generic produces supported by local agencies.
L’effet du terroir sur le vin est le plus souvent résumé à des caractéristiques sensorielles particulières conférées par les composantes physiques du milieu. Ainsi, en viticulture, de nombreux travaux ont été réalisés dans ce sens, l’étude des terroirs viticoles, correspondant à les approches géologique, pédologique et agronomique. De nombreuses équipes ont également étudié les relations entre le terroir et la qualité des vins. La qualité des vins produits correspond le plus souvent à une qualité sensorielle et parfois technologique. Cependant, si le lien au milieu naturel est revendiqué et influence directement la vigne et ses raisins, il est souvent difficile à démontrer. Pourtant, cette relation est un élément essentiel de reconnaissance et de protection du système de production des vins d’Appellation d’Origine. L’objet de cet article est d’expliciter le concept de typicité, de manière à lui donner une signification plus « universelle ».
p style="text-align: justify;">A “terroir” study, based on the “Basic Terroir Unit” concept (B.T.U.), has been realized in the french vineyard of Anjou (Loire Valley). In the characterization of B.T.U.’s natural factors, the geological component (geological stage and lithology) is the first key used to B.T.U. identification. The second affects the soil and its variability. A ground model has been elaborated as suitable to mapping small areas showing a sufficient homogeneous vine behavior. This pattern, based on the soil depth and the weathering intensity of the parent rock, allows to distinguish three main type of environments : “ rock, alteration, alterite”.
Furthermore, a viticultural survey based on parcels has been carried out and coupled to the characterization and mapping of B.T.U. The data crossing, by an information geographic system (I.G.S.), of these two approaches allowed an analysis of the wine growers empirical perception and valorization of “terroir”.
The survey has been realized among all wine-growers’ home, in the twelve main viticultural municipalities of the studied area. The different kinds of questions were about to : the socio-economical farm aspects, the vine and its ecophysiological behavior, the viticultural and oenological wine grower practices, the wine grower’s soil empirical knowledge, the climate and the parcel potentiality. Most questions presented three modalities of answers for each variable : “in the average, higher or lower than the average”. Results were treated with two methods : crossing selection and multiple factor analysis. These analysis were realized at two scales : the first one which was the ground model " rock, alteration, alterite " applied in the whole studied area, so called “general ground model” ; and the second one which was the B.T.U. for the both main geological systems : the metagrauwacke of the brioverian period and the green to grey sandstone schist of the ordovician-devonian period. At the first scale, the wine growers have well differentiated the both opposite rock and alterite environments, by climatic (air temperature, frost risk), pedoclimatic (temperature and soil moisture regime) and pedological (soil depth and stone content) criteria. The environment “ alteration ” is less well characterized from the survey but also from the characterization method of natural factors. The vine behavior (bud break earliness, canopy development in the both normal year and dry year) is also influenced, according to the survey, by the environment type. Wine growers have partly integrated these detected differences between parcels on their viticultural (grape variety, number of selection for grape harvesting) and oenological practices (kind of wine, vinification and marketing of wine per parcel, yeast using).
The analysis at the B.T.U. scale have confirmed the pertinence of the ground model “ rock, alteration, alterite ” on the perception of pedologic and pedoclimatic characteristics and a great influence of the geological system on the local climatic factors and on the vine behavior.
The coherence of results between these two approaches (survey and integrated characterization) would allow the data acquisition, per survey, about several variables that are not directly collected during the B.T.U. mapping phasis.</p
This paper deals with the technical and/or practical treatment of terroir as a study concept, together with related functional aspects. Functioning of the terroir relies on the relation between climate, soil and vine. In addition to this interaction, a comprehensive study concept for terroir requires the consideration of viticultural and enological sciences and techniques necessary to ensure the assurance of wine quality, together with spatial aspects of the grapevine response to environmental factors, as required for vineyard management. In order to comprehend the quality of the harvest, it is necessary to understand the relationship «whole plant - berry». An easy field and laboratory method to study the relationship between the whole plant and berry and the consequences thereof for wine quality is proposed. Knowledge of grapevine water status and the biochemical evolution within the grape berry from berry set onwards are important issues for the understanding of the role that terroir plays with respect to the quality of the harvest and the wine style or «typicality».
The Economy of Qualities
Michel Callon, Cécile Meadel, Vololona Rabeharisoa
The aim of this article is to highlight the main characteristics of what the authors call « the economy of qualities ». The authors show that qualifying products and positioning goods are major concerns for agents evolving within the « economy of qualities ». Competition in such an economy is structured through two basic mechanisms. The first is what the authors propose to call the process of singularization of products. The second is the mechanism whereby consumers are attached to, and detached from, goods that are proposed to them. At the heart of this logics, one can find multiple socio-technical devices which are designed by economie agents, which ensure the distribution of cognitive competencies, and which constantly and finely tune supply and demand. Relying upon Jean Gadrey' s work, the authors claim that the economy of qualities is nowhere more effective than in services providing activities, and especially in those sectors that invest heavily in NTIC. Finally, the authors suggest that in the economy of qualities, the functioning and the organization of markets are issues that are shared by scholars and actors. In these highly reflexive markets, a collaboration between them is needed.
The concept of terroir is a complex notion because apart from climate and soil, it includes individuals, social organizations and activities, such as agricultural practices. The idea of geographical origin is important for products which lay claim to a terroir-linked typicality. Quantifying the terroir effect using criteria other than taste (such as the socio-economic development for the area) is important for arguing the case of a product in the face of intellectual property rights, international trade rules and rules of competition. Measuring the 'terroir' effect on an agri-food product remains difficult for both trained experts and for the consumer, for whom the appreciation of the product or lack of it remains the principal criterion in its evaluation. This does not exclude the capacity to recognize the product's properties, but it should be remembered that the perceived taste and aromas will be transformed by the individual's experience into a unique overall impression of taste and smell. It would seem that the enrichment of the terroir concept over the centuries is a strong signal of its social importance. Terroir-derived food products, the preservation of landscapes and the encouragement of individuals are important values that merit current support and future development. High energy costs will engender a delocalization of certain agricultural products which may well lead to new links between the producer and the consumer, with inevitable positive results for terroir products. The purpose of this review is to address the question, via an extensive literature search and original conceptual analysis: what is a product's relationship to terroir and is this relationship identifiable?
Despite endless criticism of the variability of judgements about the quality of wines, wine-tasting – of increasing importance from one year to the next – is a collective undertaking. How do wine-tasters go about their work of formulating a judgement about the quality of wines? How do they free their opinions from the context? Should wines be tasted ‘blindfolded’ or not? How to put perceptions into words so as to produce statements that can be compared? What procedures and techniques to use? What requirements do their ‘judgments’ have to satisfy to fulfill objectives. Is such a judgement collective or personal? This analysis sheds light on two key operations: reducing the number of wines to be tasted so as to vouchsafe their comparability and ‘displaying the exhaustiveness’ of the wine to be tasted. Thanks to the general procedure for wine-tasting, a wine’s detected quality can be characterized: quality wines are capable of passing the tests that reduce the number of wines being compared while still manifesting a ‘surplus of existence’ that constitutes their specificity.
Harry Collins and Trevor Pinch liken science to the Golem, a creature from Jewish mythology, powerful yet potentially dangerous, a gentle, helpful creature that may yet run amok at any moment. Through a series of intriguing case studies the authors debunk the traditional view that science is the straightforward result of competent theorisation, observation and experimentation. The very well-received first edition generated much debate, reflected in a substantial new Afterword in this second edition, which seeks to place the book in what have become known as ‘the science wars’.
Terroir is a highly important concept in viticulture because it relates the sensory attributes of wine to the environmental conditions in which the grapes are grown. Quality hierarchy and wine style may, to a considerable extent, be explained by terroir. However, terroir is difficult to study on a scientific basis because many factors are involved, including climate, soil, cultivar and human practices, and these factors interact. The best expression of terroir is achieved when the precocity of the grapevine variety is suited to the local climatic conditions in such a way that full ripeness is reached by the end of the growing season. For the production of high quality red wines, environmental conditions should induce moderate vine vigour, either through moderate water deficit stress or through low nitrogen supply. These conditions are most frequently met on shallow or stony soils, in moderately dry climates. Regular but not excessive vine water and nitrogen supplies are needed to produce high quality white wines. However, great terroir emerges only when socio-economic conditions are favourable to the establishment of quality-orientated wine production.
This article examines the origins and evolution of the terroir approach as an organizing idea in development planning in West Africa. We consider the evolving meaning of the terroir concept in three distinct periods: as a research approach crafted in a French geographical school; as a site for researchdevelopment programmes, and, most recently, as a tool for conservation planning, territorial restructuring, and land privatization. An important shift in the meaning of the terroir concept is apparent in its evolving uses. For the terroir school, the terroir came to represent the socio-natural heritage of a group in which its social organization and pattern of resource use became inscribed in the landscape. The concept took on new meaning in the late-1980s as an appropriate location for on-farm research by agricultural development planners. The terroir became both an alternative research site and a setting for mobilizing rural populations to adopt new land management and farming techniques. The meaning of the concept shifted again in the 1990s with the advent of the gestion des terroirs approach. In the hands of conservation and development planners, the terroir was conceived of as a scale of intervention for a host of government, aid donor, and NGO programmes. In summary, a significant change in the meaning of the concept has taken place from one in which the notion of local heritage was dominant to one that emphasizes territory and boundary clarification.
Many variables such as total soluble sugars, total titratable acidity, nitrogen and phenolic compounds balance, contribute to describe grape quality. They vary strongly with genetic (cultivars) and environmental (climate, soil, and cultural practices together referred to as “terroir”, and vintage) factors. The aim of this work was to determine changes in metabolite fingerprints of grape berry skins of ‘Merlot noir’, ‘Carbernet franc’ or ‘Cabernet Sauvignon’ cultivars harvested in 2002, 2003 and 2004 from five geographical locations in Bordeaux (south-west of France) to better understand the factors influencing the grape berry composition. 1H NMR spectroscopy was used to determine metabolic profiles of skin extracts of berries harvested at maturity. Before analysis by multivariate statistical methods, spectral data were reduced (sum of intensities over 0.04 ppm spectral domains) and normalized to generate 183 variables describing the entire spectra. Principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares (PLS) chemometric methods were applied to describe sample variability and show clustering of samples. These chemometric methods gave a good separation of samples according to vintages. PLS allowed us to pinpoint spectral domains corresponding to metabolites contributing to the differences between vintages, including sugars (glucose, fructose and sucrose), organic acids (tartaric, malic, citric and succinic acids), and amino acids (proline, arginine, GABA, valine, alanine, leucine and isoleucine). Conversely, soils classified according to their capacity to provide water to the vines, could not be discriminated by 1H NMR metabolic fingerprinting of the berries. The vintage effect on grape metabolic profiles prevailed over the soil effect. This emphasizes the fact that a typical vineyard is defined by its most frequent climatic traits such as the seasonal sum of temperatures and water balance.
Nous utilisons le paradigme d'espace public pour développer un point de vue l'historique sur les questions de vulgarisation et de communication scientifique, pour en cerner les enjeux, puis d'ouvrir des pistes d'évolution possible aux musées et autres lieux de communication scientifique et technique.
On parle tant de la qualité des vins en France. Mais comment interpréter le fait que si peu de gens la perçoivent ? Cette qualité existe-t-elle? Est-elle un mythe, une illusion ? Faut-il au contraire penser que c’est le manque d’information, d’éducation, de formation du goût qui est à l’origine du défaut de perception de la qualité ? Ces deux interprétations sont courantes et soutiennent l’affrontement entre ceux qui affirment l’existence d’un marché des vins de qualité et ceux qui la nient, dénonçant une fausse hiérarchisation des vins ne reposant que sur le snobisme de certains buveurs, ou même souhaitent ou agissent au nom de la libre concurrence par exemple pour qu’il disparaisse. Plutôt que de s’engager dans cette controverse, en cherchant à pointer après tant d’autres le « véritable » lieu de la différence entre les vins de qualité, dans le vin lui-même, dans le social ou dans l’imaginaire, ce livre cherche à rendre compte de l’activité que déploient les acteurs pour faire exister ce marché, en s’appuyant sur des ressources très diverses… Il insiste tout particulièrement sur le rôle actif et fondamental d’acteurs souvent négligés de ce marché : les critiques vinicoles. Grâce à un très lourd travail de dégustation et de jugement, ces derniers qualifient les vins ; puis en les comparant, ils produisent des différences qu’ils parviennent parfois à hiérarchiser. Mais pour qu’un marché de ces vins puisse exister, ils doivent encore faire partager ces jugements par des acheteurs. Les critiques ne sont pas que des juges, ils sont aussi prosélytes. Tous commencent par informer les acheteurs en publiant le résultat de leurs dégustations. Certains ne s’en contentent pas et proposent alors à leurs lecteurs quantité de ressources pour vaincre les freins qui, selon eux, les empêchent de ressentir la qualité des vins : perception faussée, influencée, mauvais goûts incorporés, inexpérience… Grâce à eux, les buveurs qui le souhaitent peuvent tenter de modifier leur relation au vin et se retrouvent alors enrôlés dans le travail de différenciation qualitative des vins comme amateurs, mais aussi comme clients. Finalement, cet ouvrage montre un espace marchand dans lequel l’action collectivement orientée vers la différenciation d’une qualité objective, indépendante des consommateurs, de leurs goûts et préférences, loin de les laisser démunis, aboutit paradoxalement à accroître la diversité avec laquelle les consommateurs eux-mêmes trouvent leur façon d’aimer le vin.
C'est l'histoire d'une apparition : le 24 juin 1981, à Medjugorje, en Bosnie-Herzégovine, la Vierge se montre à six enfants. Depuis lors, elle n'a cessé de leur apparaître, chaque jour et à la même heure, attirant, d'Europe ou d'Amérique, des centaines de milliers de pèlerins, qui tous demandent son intercession. C'est l'histoire d'une enquête anthropologique totale : l'objet n'en est pas la véracité des faits, mais les espoirs et attentes qu'ils n'ont cessé de soulever, parmi les pèlerins, mais aussi les habitants : car, depuis lors, sont apparus une Croatie qui a enrôlé la Vierge dans sa guerre d'indépendance ; et des charniers des années de plomb antérieures - occupation nazie, puis guerre civile et instauration du régime communiste - qui permettent que Croates ou Serbes fassent ce deuil longtemps interdit par une histoire refoulée ou officielle.C'est l'histoire, enfin, du personnage de la Vierge : la difficile construction par les Pères de l'Église au fil des siècles du personnage de la "Mère de Dieu" permet de comprendre qu'à Medjugorje, celle-ci puisse être tout à la fois la Mère de miséricorde, la Guerrière ayant mené la Croatie à la victoire, l'Annonciatrice de la fin du communisme, la Guérisseuse de tous les maux.
Taste in everyday life is not the same as the gustatory sensations studied by physiologists. In general, this term covers a multitude of sensations including olfaction and sotnes- thesia. Semantic describers, which have changed with history and between languages, reflect this multi-faceted confusion. The whole of our gustatory sensitivity cannot be reduced to just four attributes as the existence of four describers would lead one to believe (The Japanese propose umami as a fifth describer. We could propose licorice as a sixth, etc.). We have shown that the gustatory world is multidimensional and continuous. That is to say that ail molécules are distinguishable and that at least ten acceptor mechanisms are required to explain the complex coding of an infinite number of differing gustatory sensations. This coding scheme is thus thought of in terms of units and combinatives. To explain the différences of sensitivity between individuals, we have developed a hypothesis in which chemoreceptors differ slightly from one individual to the next. Each individual thus senses a particular perception for each molécule. In gênerai, this experience is non-communicable but sometimes it is possible to characterize it objectively. Thus, the methyl alpha d mannopyranoside is bitter for some subjects and sweet for others.
An ex ample of participative democracy : the « citizens'conference » on genetically modified organisms
A Citizens'Conference on genetically modified plants took place on 20 and 21 June 1998, under the auspices of the [French] National Assembly. The model of these « Citizens'Conferences » comes from Denmark, the first country to use this new means of deliberation on scientific and technical issues. How has this method been adapted to the French situation ? What is it political significance ? What is the basis of the legitimacy of deliberations of fifteen lay people ? Is this a new mode of consultation at the disposal of political decision-makers, or should conferences be considered merely contributions to the public debate on contested issues ?
Résumé
L’article revient sur l’émergence, dans les sciences sociales des années 1980, d’une configuration intellectuelle caractérisée par le choix d’une approche non réductionniste de l’éclatement des références normatives, tant au niveau de la société, de l’action, que de la connaissance. Il précise et discute les infléchissements apportés à cette configuration par le « laboratoire des Cités» issu des recherches de Luc Boltanski et Laurent Thévenot, ainsi que par la sociologie dite des « régimes d’action». S’appuyant alors sur le constat de l’importance, dans les controverses publiques, de la référence aux biens en soi, manière de défendre une position par des objectifs qui valent d’être poursuivis en tant que tels, l’article développe une sociologie des pouvoirs attachée à montrer comment ceux-ci visent des biens de ce type, tout en étant tributaires du caractère incomplet des épreuves susceptibles d’assurer cette dimension morale du travail politique. L’article esquisse enfin comment saisir dans ce contexte la dynamique historique des épreuves et des pouvoirs, et éclairer les transformations du sens critique.
The formulations of cultural sociology have a tendency to merge culture and the social so closely that they become indistinguishable from one another. Drawing on Foucauldian governmentality theory and actor network theory, this article argues that it is preferable to examine the processes through which culture is separated off from the social via the production of distinctive cultural assemblages.The kinds of issues that need to be taken into consideration to account for the work that goes into making culture as a publicly differentiated realm are identified. Attention then focuses on the kinds of work that culture does in being brought to act on the ‘working surfaces on the social’ that are organized in the relations between social and cultural knowledges. The argument is exemplified by considering how the assemblages of Aboriginal culture produced by Baldwin Spencer enabled the production of a new surface of social management through which the relations between white and Aboriginal Australia were organized in the context of the Aboriginal domain.
The Liberty Bell stands today as one of the most prominent and widely recognized symbols of America. As a cultural biography of this national artifact, this paper focuses on the four main media through which the Bell has over time gained the exposure needed for its consecration in the public mind. The media of presenting the Bell include (1) the changing ways in which it has been exhibited in Philadelphia for the public and (2) the many train journeys across the United States the Bell took from 1885 to 1915 to visit various industrial expositions. The media of representing the Bell include (3) the many mid- to late-19th-century mythic stories that portray it as a key figure in both the American Revolution and the early 19th-century antislavery movement in the United States and (4) the post-1876 growth of the use of its image in advertising and tourism.
While carrying out tasks such as describing a flavour or judging the distance of a sample from the top quality or standard quantities of that flavour, the assessor operates within a multidimensional space that has been set up by previous perceptual experience. The actual patterns of chemoreceptor stimulation by the test samples that are integrated into the assessor's scores are identifiable by their summation into sets of orthogonal discrimination scales that best account for scores on a particular response. Such cognitive measurement of the physicochemical bases of flavour quality is illustrated by tastant mixtures in foods and drinks, food aromas from mixtures of volatile compounds, identification of oritactile as well as chemosensory patterns in creamy flavour and interactions of flavour with nutritional information or bodily state.
Multidimensional scaling (MDS) was used to study qualitative relationships among mouthfeel attributes encountered in oral healthcare products. Similarity estimates were obtained from a rapid sorting task and from pairwise similarity ratings. Configurations were interpreted as suggesting four groupings of oral sensations: numbing, astringency, pain and taste. The pain-associated sensations were further differentiated into thermally related sensations and chemically related sensations in some configurations. Two-dimensional solutions from the sorting task and from group-averaged similarity ratings were similar. Individual differences scaling solutions, however, showed unacceptably high stress in two dimensions, suggesting additional nuances in meaning to individual panelists that were not captured by group-averaged data or by sorting data.
Many French wines, and now other kinds of agricultural products, manifest the process of “patrimonialization” as a counterforce to the homogenizing trends in the globalization of world food systems. The appellation contrôlée (AOC) concept, which dates from 1935, is the oldest expression of that patrimonial process. In it, the characteristics of a place—the terroir—are used to gloss its legally protected, territorial definition on which hinge claims to a place-based product authenticity and, by extension, quality. AOC implementation, now with almost seven decades of experience in France, serves as the model to understand how the application of terroir to place has focused on land-use practice, wine definition, vinicultural tradition, and landscape preservation. A complementary process at work is product salience that establishes its individuality in an interactive expectation between producer and consumer. Fieldwork in the commune of Cassis (Department of Bouches-du-Rhône) in the South of France sorted the set of historical, environmental, and economic conditions to reveal the actual functioning of these two processes at a local level. Appellation Cassis contrôlée, the third oldest and one of the smallest AOC in French viniculture, comprises 180 ha of vineyards and fourteen wine growers. In this case, establishment of product authenticity has been a continuous process. Wine types have evolved in spite of the absence of real innovation; political territory has been used to define terroir; the discourse of quality depends heavily on the historic past; vineyards have acquired a community value beyond any productivity; and producers have defined and defended their territory to boost its prestige to themselves and their consumers. The key entity in the appellation is the lower winegrowers syndicate. Presumptive statements, promotional rhetoric, consumer desire, and the politics of local decision making have shaped this wine region far beyond its environmental associations.
Terroir, the concept of an essential link between location of production and a specific quality attribute, is emerging as a contentious issue in trade negotiations and disputes. This issue is manifest through disputes and disagreements about appropriate protection of ‘geographical indications’ (GIs). This paper explores the differences in approach taken by the EU and the US towards GI protection, and illustrates the nature of the legal and economic arguments. The transatlantic dispute is spreading to other countries through the inclusion of GI protection in regional and bilateral trade pacts. It also has implications for the eventual conclusion of the WTO Doha Round negotiations, as the terroir issue arises in both the agricultural and the Trade-Related Intellectual Property (TRIPS) agendas, once again pitting the US and EU as protagonists. But there are signs of change in these positions as the GI system in the EU comes under review and producers in the US reconsider the possible advantages of location-based identifiers. These issues are important in a number of food sectors, and are likely to be persistent. They deserve more attention from practising applied economists than they have yet received.
This essay considers the current importance of labels of origin for agro-food products as part of a biopolitics of food that relinks the local and global through an emphasis on place. The particular example of the French system of AOC labeling (appellation d’origin côntrolée) is explored in both directions, linking to the local through the concept of terroir, and linking to the global as intellectual property defined by the GATT and regulated by the WTO as a “geographical indication.” Embeddedness perspectives and conventions theory are suggested as fruitful avenues for understanding why labels of origin present a challenge to conventional agriculture. These theoretical perspectives also shed light on how origin labeled products administered by the state impact rural development through the processes of negotiation they engender. The French AOC request process is outlined and aspects of it analyzed in more detail to demonstrate how it opens market forms of justification to larger arenas of social scrutiny.
481 p. Il serait moins difficile de situer Popper et son oeuvre s'il était possible, sans le trahir, de le rattacher à une école, à un courant de pensée établi... En outre, et malgré l'étendue de son influence, je ne pense pas que l'on puisse parler d'une école popperienne. Son œuvre ne constitue pas un système au sens habituel... Popper philosophe ne s'intéresse que fort peu en somme à la philosophie en tant que telle. En revanche, dès son extrême jeunesse, sa réflexion s'attache à tous les grands courants de pensée qui, au lendemain de la première guerre, parcourent l'Europe bouleversée. Formé aux disciplines mathématiques et physiques, le jeune Popper s'interroge d'abord sur la théorie de la relativité... Dans le marxisme et la psychanalyse il voit de grandes entreprises de la pensée jetant un regard nouveau et parfois pénétrant sur la société, sur l'histoire, sur l'homme. Mais il sent bien aussi... que le statut de ces puissantes idéologies... est profondément différent de celui de la Relativité... Le marxisme et la psychanalyse sont hors de la science précisément en ce que, et parce que, par nature, par la structure même de leurs théories, ils sont irréfutables. La théorie d'Einstein au contraire est réfutable, vulnérable à l'expérience; ... elle n'a pas été et ne-pouvait être prouvée. Le critère de démarcation (ou de falsifiabilité) a été à l'origine, il est demeuré au centre de l'épistémologie de Popper... C'est ce qui fait de ce livre, à mes yeux, l'un des rares ouvrages d'épistémologie où un homme de science puisse reconnaître, sinon parfois découvrir, le mouvement même de sa pensée, l'histoire vraie rarement écrite, du progrès auquel il a pu personnellement contribuer. De sa critique, minutieuse, rigoureuse autant que destructrice, émerge sa propre éthique politique, étroitement associée à son épistémologie de la conjecture, de la réfutation, de l'erreur corrigée. Pour Popper, la philosophie de l'action, comme celle de la connaissance, n'est pas un délire mais une sagesse. Sagesse fondée sur un acte de foi dans le pouvoir de la rationalité éprouvée et de la «mesure», comme aurait dit Camus; acte de foi délibéré et lucide en l'homme, pour qui il a cette admirable formule: «l'homme peut savoir, donc il peut être libre».