Cooperation, Qualification Professionnelle Et Regimes De Responsabilite

The farming profession, as other professions, is confronted with a crisis of confidence (food scares, environmental concerns...). This present professional crisis corresponds both with an external challenge expressed by the social and public demands and an internal trend of competencies change in front of a new context for innovation. From the case of farming, this paper aims to draw a general framework for the analysis of profession and professional mode of production. The point of departure is a definition of the modes of economic coordination that includes collective governance. Springing from scholar's works on professions that use convention theory or competences-based approaches, a general model is framed. Conventions of cooperation allow the construction of collective knowledge and the regulation of collectives (communities). Conventions of qualification design the status of professional groups and professions. Professional qualification steams from shared core competences and from and accountability regime corresponding with the professional ethic and code of practices and the public regulation of profession. The professional crisis results from changes in the social forms, or conventions, of qualification and in the accountability régime.