Learning, reflexivity, decision-making, and behavioral change for sustainable viticulture associated with participatory action research

Despite the abundance of compelling scientific knowledge about dramatic changes in climate, biodiversity and the environment, there is little change in human behavior. Do humans perceive and understand the gravity of the challenges at stake, or are they overwhelmed by adversity? The challenge may be in finding appropriate levers to involve stakeholders in a broader process of shared learning, while producing scientific knowledge, to overcome uncertainty, and achieving the expected collective action? In the field of viticulture, researchers, winegrowers, citizens and environmental associations have been involved in participatory action research projects, one located in Switzerland, one in Germany and two in France. All actors were involved, from the formulation of questions up to the production of knowledge, to address the issue of the negative impacts of viticulture on the environment and human health. Group workshops and individual interviews were conducted on each of the four sites, for a nine-year period. A collective workshop involving also actors outside the project was conducted, and followed by a trinational workshop bringing together actors from Swiss, German and French projects. The audio recordings and writings produced were transcribed. All texts were analyzed on the linguistic level, with textometric tools, while going back to the actors’ initial quotes. Our results suggest that during the course of projects, more sustainable viticultural practices were designed, and implemented in the vineyard, on a large scale. Also, our analysis suggests that, in parallel to changes in viticulture practices, a new vocabulary, associated with different individual and collective reasoning, emerged in the discourse of the actors involved in projects. These major changes were associated with an inventiveness that developed within and beyond the groups. Because human reasoning changed in the context of participatory action research, we suggest that such a research format could address global issues, finally reaching awaited changes.