Innovative Design, a Tool to Renew the Management of Common Resources. The Case of a Basque Local Sheep Breed

Résumé 0

This article reports an intervention research project on the management and breeding of a local dairy sheep breed in the French basque Country, the Manech Tête Noire. The collective management of this breed and long-term sustainability of this biological resource considered as a “common good” have been threatened by several cooperation crises. To overcome them an innovative participative approach was designed based on the KCP method (Knowledge – Concept – Proposals, Elmquist & Segrestin, 2009). From March to October 2012, we facilitated KCP workshops which brought together local stakeholders and the breed users in order to work out innovative technical and organizational schemes to redesign the breeding program and management system of the breed. This method, initially developed in business and industries, required adaptations so as to be operational in a territorial and distributed context. This approach produced three main results : the design of technical and organizational innovations, the redefining of a common objective for collective action, and the creation of sustainable capacities for innovation. Our analysis of this intervention research based on KCP methods provides useful tools for researchers and stakeholders involved in design processes for the management of common goods in the case of distributed situations of collective action.