Common goods, soil care and territorial reappropriation in Chanaleilles (Haute Loire)
Résumé
Mankind has upset the great terrestrial balances (Berque, 2019) and liberalism has
imposed itself through an existential narrative leading to enclosures, to the transformation
of "everything" into a resource (Tsing, 2017). Reweaving links to physical, cultural and
symbolic substratum (Carabelli & Laffont, 2022); refounding new relationships between
human and non-human (Hache, 2012); making milieu (Younès & Goetz, 2010), such is
the challenge! Some regions are renewing their ties with the care of the earth (Pattaroni
et al., 2009), by working together through the ordinary, mobilizing technical, social and
ecological know-how in a dynamic relationship with places and the living (Dewey, 2003).
Chanaleilles is a key focus of our attention. In this rural commune in the Haute Loire
region (France), actions are aimed at opening up the field of possibilities by: defending
an existing system based on the values of sharing, cooperation, mutual aid and support;
overcoming the constraints and difficulties of the area's situation (mid-range mountains,
demographic decline, restrictive laws, etc.). By questioning the relationship with the land
through the "uses" (grazing, cutting, cultivation, etc.), "living(s)" (human, animal, plant,
water), " transit " (transhumance, nomadism, migration, pilgrimage, walking, etc.) entries,
this proposal, part of axis 3, has two objectives. Firstly, to understand the brakes, levers and driving forces behind the environment, using a variety of survey methods (observations, interviews, surveys, residence). Secondly, based on Chanaleilles, to explore the potential for re-enchantment of the world of the commons (sectional and communal), certainly beni communi attached to humans (Rodotà, 2016) but also "choses lieux" (Vanuxen, 2018), thought of and mobilized as co-ownership and co-activity of all living things and on the reciprocal principle of debt and gift (Faburel, 2019). It is these initial analyses and explorations that will be proposed for debate.