Common goods, soil care and territorial reappropriation in Chanaleilles (Haute Loire): First analyses of a relational ecology under construction

Résumé En

Mankind has upset the great terrestrial balances (Berque, 2019) and liberalism hasimposed itself through an existential narrative leading to enclosures, to the transformationof "everything" into a resource (Tsing, 2017). Reweaving links to physical, cultural andsymbolic substratum (Carabelli & Laffont, 2022); refounding new relationships betweenhuman and non-human (Hache, 2012); making milieu (Younès & Goetz, 2010), such isthe challenge! Some regions are renewing their ties with the care of the earth (Pattaroniet al., 2009), by working together through the ordinary, mobilizing technical, social andecological 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 Loireregion (France), actions are aimed at opening up the field of possibilities by: defendingan 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 landthrough 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.