Abstract
In Morocco, agriculture in oasis extensions differs from traditional oasis agriculture due to its entrepreneurial orientation, intensive practices and individualized access to groundwater. In this paper, we explore the processes of knowledge construction and circulation that make this new agriculture possible, examining in particular the intergenerational relationships that shape them. We do so by tracing the trajectories of 30 young people and 5 of their elders in the Ferkla oasis. We show that the production of knowledge is the site of more complex, and contested, intergenerational negotiations than the simplistic model of transmission by the elders, or innovation by the young. Instead, three main modes of knowledge construction and circulation coexist, often on the same farm: i) classic transmission from elders to young people; ii) horizontal dissemination between young people of knowledge built up through direct exchanges; iii) reverse dissemination, from young people to elders, of knowledge built up through extra-territorial relations. The analysis of agricultural knowledge thus provides a fertile entry point for studying the evolution of intergenerational relations in territories marked by a tightening of economic opportunities and a forced cohabitation of generations.