Table Of ContentTerritorial Ecology and Socio-ecological Transition
To Céline who supports me, day after day
Smart Innovation Set
coordinated by
Dimitri Uzunidis
Volume 34
Territorial Ecology and
Socio-ecological Transition
Nicolas Buclet
First published 2021 in Great Britain and the United States by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2020950525
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ISBN 978-1-78630-546-6
Contents
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Chapter 1. Positioning Territorial Ecology in the Scientific
and Institutional Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1. Positioning of territorial ecology from a scientific
point of view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1.1. Urban ecology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1.2. Industrial ecology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.1.3. From industrial ecology to industrial and territorial
ecology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.1.4. The social ecology of Vienna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.1.5. Toward a territorial ecology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.2. Positioning in the institutional context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.2.1. The evolution of concepts around sustainability . . . . . . . 17
1.2.2. From industrial ecology to circular economy . . . . . . . . . 20
1.2.3. A variation of circularity: the bioeconomy . . . . . . . . . . 22
1.2.4. An effective consideration of the stakes . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
1.3. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
vi Territorial Ecology and Socio-ecological Transition
Chapter 2. Main Methodologies Developed Around
Urban and Territorial Metabolism: Contributions
and Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.1. The main principles of metabolism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.1.1. Plurality of objectives and methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.1.2. The implementation of the Eurostat method at the
territorial level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.1.3. A tool for analysis and comparison between territories . . . 32
2.2. The rise of social metabolism and the territorial footprint . . . 35
2.2.1. The different facets of the place of energy in
metabolism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
2.2.2. The central place of the foodprint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
2.2.3. ... as well as the place of water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.2.4. The stakes of social metabolism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
2.3. Contributing to better knowledge of territorial issues . . . . . . 50
2.3.1. A more participatory approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
2.3.2. A more territorially focused approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
2.4. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Chapter 3. A Wealth Creation Approach for a Territorial
Diagnosis Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.1. The model of wealth creation subsystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.1.1. The starting model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
3.1.2. Multiple questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
3.2. Methods of analysis of the relationships between stakeholders
within the territorial metabolism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
3.2.1. Which stakeholders should be taken into account? . . . . . 70
3.2.2. How to take into account the relationships between
stakeholders? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
3.3. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Chapter 4. Territorial Ecology and the Challenges of the
Socio-ecological Transition: Metabolism, Capacity and
Resilience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
4.1. Capabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
4.1.1. The rise of individualistic freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
4.1.2. A certain approach to freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
4.1.3. Individual capabilities or collective capabilities . . . . . . . 95
Contents vii
4.1.4. Territory and capabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
4.2. Better integration of the relationship to the environment within
the metabolism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
4.2.1. Socio-ecosystems and nature’s contribution to people . . . . 104
4.2.2. A socio-ecosystemic approach to wealth . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
4.3. Territorial capability and resilience: a means to tackle
transition issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
4.3.1. Vulnerability and resilience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
4.3.2. Capability and resilience of territorial systems . . . . . . . . 112
4.3.3. Beaufort cheese: between vulnerability
and resilience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
4.4. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Chapter 5. Principles for Innovative Territorial Projects . . . . 127
5.1. Conventional regimes and principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
5.1.1. Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
5.1.2. Conventional values and reference points . . . . . . . . . . . 132
5.1.3. Conventional regimes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
5.2. From the dominant conventional regime to a more
sustainable one . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
5.2.1. The basis of the dominant conventional regime . . . . . . . 136
5.2.2. What might the characteristics be of a sustainable
conventional regime? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
5.3. Toward innovative regional projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
5.3.1. What innovation? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
5.3.2. Local initiatives at the heart of the alternative regime . . . . 152
5.3.3. Is there a rise of an alternative regime? . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
5.3.4. The key role of politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
5.4. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Acknowledgments
This work has benefited from the support of the French state and in
particular, within the framework of the following research projects:
– Projet Trajectories, within the framework of IDEX Université
Grenoble Alpes, as part of the “Investments for the Future” program
bearing the reference ANR-15-IDEX-02;
– CAP-Bioterproject, funded by ADEME (Agence de
l’Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l’Energie, French Environment
and Energy Management Agency), REACCTIF program;
– BOAT project, funded by ADEME (Agence de l’Environnement
et de la Maîtrise de l’Energie, French Environment and Energy
Management Agency), GRAINE program.
This publication was also made possible thanks to the exceptional
working environment that I enjoy, whether at the PACTE laboratory
and the IUGA (Institut d’Urbanisme et de Géographie Alpine, French
Institute of Urban Planning and Alpine Geography), whose members
and management I would like to thank, or with the colleagues
involved in the Trajectories project, a particularly enriching
interdisciplinary project on the trajectories of socio-ecosystems. In
this respect, I would like to thank Sandrine Anquetin and Sandra
Lavorel with whom I had the honor of co-facilitating this project. I
would also like to thank Juliette Cerceau, who has helped me a lot in
the CAP-Bioter project, which she has carried on with despite
administrative adversity.
x Territorial Ecology and Socio-ecological Transition
My thanks also go to the colleagues with whom I have been able to
have rich and friendly exchanges with in recent years, whether in
Grenoble or elsewhere. In no particular order, I would like to thank
Sabine Barles, Gilles Billen, Muriel Maillefert, Sabrina Brullot,
Philippe Lescoat, Sophie Madelrieux, Pauline Marty, Pierre-Antoine
Landel, Myriam Donsimoni, Magali Talandier, Kirsten Koop, Gilles
Debizet, Bernard Pecqueur, Claude Janin, Dany Lapostolle, Pierre-
Yves Longaretti and Jean-Yves Courtonne. I have surely forgotten
some colleagues and I apologize for this in advance.
Finally, I thank my family Céline and the children, whom I love
above all else and whom I am so proud of. I, for one, am not so proud
of the world we are leaving them, even though with books like this I
try to do my part.
