Des mouvements altermondialistes aux transitions écologiques : l’enjeu environnemental au prisme des mobilisations en matière d’agriculture et d’alimentation dans l’ouest Var (1990-2020)

Since the 1970s, the recognition of environmental problems has driven civil society to take a stand against the excesses of capitalist socio-economic models or, more occasionally, in opposition to controversial projects. More recently, the urgency of climate change has provided fertile ground for the multiplication of forms of collective actions deployed locally and/or with the support of translocal networks. This article, based on an analysis of agricultural and food-related mobilisations in the western Var region (France), shows three different ways of understanding environmental problems, grasping them and translating them into concrete action. The article analyses environmental issues as a ‘field of collective experience’ (Cefaï, 2015), reflecting the interaction between social worlds and their environment, in changing political, economic and ecological contexts. Anti-globalization mobilisations, environmental associationism and ecological transition initiatives all reflect differentiated treatments of environmental issues. While these differentiated treatments of environmental issues may forge several ways of conceiving collective action, the article shows that these mobilisations can be read as interwoven stages of a common social history of the environmental issue.