Abstract
This thesis examines the potential of digital tools for sharing resources and knowledge within an agroecological movement committed to the promotion and protection of peasant seeds.This doctoral work is based on a genealogy of the concept of agroecology that distinguishes three dimensions: an agriculture that develops in symbiosis with the environmental ecosystem, a societal project that emancipates itself from capitalism, and an object of struggles shaped by the socio-material organization of agricultural production and the social distribution of wealth.A neo-Gramscian approach is mobilized to characterize the hegemonic transformation of the seed sector, legitimized by the encouragement of technical progress through regulations on intellectual property. This approach, which allows us to study counter-hegemonic initiatives, movements and organizations, is articulated with an approach based on the Commons, which is mobilized here as an alternative to the commodification of seeds. This theoretical framework makes it possible to understand the dual purpose of an agroecological movement that is both counter-hegemonic, because it is opposed to the seed hegemony, and alternative, because it aims to promote an agriculture based on the Commons. Indeed, considering seeds as commons challenges the hegemonic vision based on intellectual property and seed privatization. The organizations involved in this seed commons movement are developing a model of agriculture and society that is distinct from the dominant model.To study the potential of digital technology for knowledge management and sharing within this agroecological movement, participatory action research was conducted over 20 months in 2020 and 2021 with organizations working on the conservation, dissemination and protection of farmers' seeds and against their industrial appropriation.The results first of all attest to the desire of some members of the movement to engage in a Commons-based approach, using a digital tool to share knowledge and manage common resources. The participatory action research led, in this sense, to the elaboration and detailing of a set of specifications of the co-designed digital tool. However, the project was not endorsed by the entire movement, due to the cautious nature of the counter-hegemonic struggle in which these agro-ecological actors are engaged. From this point of view, the digital sharing of knowledge within the movement may increase the risk of appropriation of seed resources by the agro-industrial hegemony.This thesis contributes to the neo-Gramscian literature by characterizing the particular challenges faced by movements that are both engaged in a counter-hegemonic struggle and bearers of an affinity-based logic of the Commons. It also highlights the complexity of the logics at work in the mobilization of digital tools in favour of agroecological transformation.