Journal Articles by Laura Centemeri
L'Année Sociologique, 2025
L’article analyse la gouvernance de la reconstruction dans l’Apennin central italien après les sé... more L’article analyse la gouvernance de la reconstruction dans l’Apennin central italien après les séismes de 2016-2017. Dans la recherche sur les catastrophes, les reconstructions sont appréhendées au travers de deux conventions de l’État : l’État extérieur, imposant sa vision du bien commun ; et l’État absent, qui laisse les acteurs se coordonner par le marché. Dans l’Apennin central, le gouvernement a confié la coordination de la reconstruction à un commissaire extraordinaire, agissant en tant qu’État extérieur, tout en favorisant une coordination située. Face à la complexité politique et administrative de la reconstruction, ce dispositif aboutit à une impasse qui renforce une convention de l’État défaillant. Il se met à fonctionner quand le Commissaire nommé mobilise de manière convaincante, tant dans les relations avec le gouvernement central qu’avec les acteurs aux autres échelles, une convention de l’État en personne faisant reposer la coordination sur une légitimité charismatique.
Etnografia e Ricerca Qualitativa, 2025
The article introduces the concept of slow agrifood disasters as a critical lens to investigate c... more The article introduces the concept of slow agrifood disasters as a critical lens to investigate contemporary forms of ecological and social vulnerability in rural worlds, with a focus on the Mediterranean area. Drawing on empirical cases from Morocco, Italy, and France, the special issue shows how the productivist and industrial organization of agri-food systems not only fails to prevent disasters but often constitutes one of their main direct or indirect causes. The concept of slow disaster enables the analysis of these processes across multiple scales and over extended temporalities, revealing how the accumulation of ecological, health, and social damages is often normalized. Within this framework, the notion of rural becomings shifts the focus away from static representations of rurality toward an understanding of rural worlds as dynamic realities, shaped by socio-ecological tensions, multispecies relationships, and conflicts between divergent agricultural models where disaster can-though rarely doesbecome an opportunity of transformation toward agroecology. The ethnographic and multispecies approaches adopted in the articles of the special issue highlight the complex relations between agriculture, ecology, institutions, and social subjectivities, questioning technocratic and financial responses to risk. Finally, the dialogue between agri-food studies and disaster studies suggests new theoretical and methodological pathways for understanding and engaging with contemporary rural territories.
Etnografia e Ricerca Qualitativa , 2025
The article discusses the use of pesticides in agriculture through the lens of the notion of slow... more The article discusses the use of pesticides in agriculture through the lens of the notion of slow disaster. It examines how qualitative research contributes to understanding the multiple social forms of “attachment” to this technology. After arguing for the interest in using the notion of “slow disaster”, the Italian case is presented as an example of undone social science on the topic of pesticides. The article then draws a parallel with the French context. A selective review of qualitative research on pesticides in France highlights different approaches to engaging with the topic, ranging from describing the experiences of working and living with pesticides to analyzing the social construction of knowledge to demonstrate health and ecological damages, as well as the forms of circulation and regulation. The article represents an initial step in reflecting on the conditions that favor or hinder the involvement of social sciences in pesticide research, and in starting to develop a research agenda in the Italian context.
Agriculture and Human Values, 2024
Preparedness is an anticipatory approach developed in the military and health sectors in response... more Preparedness is an anticipatory approach developed in the military and health sectors in response to unforeseen and unforeseeable crises and emergencies. It has recently entered the debate over the resilience and sustainability of European food systems. The paper seeks to shed light on the implications of the European Union's adoption of preparedness in its food security policy, particularly focusing on the preparatory phase and the early activity the European Food Security Crisis Preparedness and Response Mechanism (EFSCM), a consultative body launched by the European Commission in 2021. Through an analysis of documents and meeting minutes, we illustrate how debates on implementing preparedness are influenced by conflicting sociotechnical imaginaries of sustainable food security. Results show that the EU's shift towards preparedness combines elements of continuity and novelty in its food policy. Continuity concerns the acknowledged need to deal with growing turbulence and unpredictability affecting food systems. Novelty involves attempts at building bridges between diverging imaginaries of sustainable food security to address both short-term and long-term challenges to food security. Also new is the shift to a 'management,' as opposed to a 'problem-solving,' outlook on crisis and emergency.
The Tocqueville Review, 44 (1), pp. 113-136, 2023
À partir des données d’une recherche sur l’origine du mouvement de la permaculture, les modalités... more À partir des données d’une recherche sur l’origine du mouvement de la permaculture, les modalités de sa diffusion transnationale et sa présence actuelle en Italie et dans d’autres pays du sud de l’Europe, l’article propose une analyse de l’évolution du mouvement sous l’angle du poids croissant en son sein des formes d’appropriation individualisée mais également de « préfiguration ouverte ». La préfiguration suppose l’inscription de la vision du changement social d’un mouvement non seulement dans ses objectifs déclarés mais également dans ses pratiques. Alors que la « préfiguration fermée » préconise la création de communautés avec une identité forte et partagée et une frontière nettement délimitée séparant l’intérieur de l’extérieur, la « préfiguration ouverte » favorise les « collaborations » entre les activistes de la permaculture et d’autres mouvements et groupes sociaux. Dans les conclusions, l’article revient sur les risques associés à la « fluidité » de la permaculture comme méthode de préfiguration écologique, mais également sur la contribution de ce mouvement aux luttes pour la justice environnementale et climatique et à la transformation culturelle nécessaire à l’émergence d’une société civile écologique.
Sociologica. International Journal for Sociological Debate, 2021
In this paper we point out the topic and the rational of the symposium aiming on the one hand to ... more In this paper we point out the topic and the rational of the symposium aiming on the one hand to connect preparedness to the uncertainty that characterizes society-environment relation, on the other hand to emphasise the need for sociology not only to denounce the governmental implications of preparedness but also to engage constructively with this category. We begin by recalling the framework changes that have characterized the social sciences' understanding of disasters by showing how progressively the idea of disaster as a one-time event that disrupts a society from the outside has been complemented by an idea of disaster as a critical moment embedded in historically determined social structures. We will then discuss how the emergence of the preparedness paradigm fits within these developments and how sociological research can help to better understand what is at stake in the governing of (and by) preparedness. In this perspective we advance a reading of preparedness from the vantage point of knowledge. As a conclusion, we discuss how the understanding of preparedness as dependent on socio-ecological transformation raises specific challenges for territorial governance.
Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, 2022
Human material dependency is hardly questioned as such. However, there are different understandin... more Human material dependency is hardly questioned as such. However, there are different understandings of humans' connection with their biophysical milieu. In this paper we discuss four basic accounts, which differ according to whether dependency and agency are assumed to be strong or weak. Though these accounts, which we label as Cartesian, Kantian, Spinozian and Adornian, are ideal-typical, we argue they express a cognitive path dependency that can be detected in the diverse ways the transition to sustainability is pursued. To show the heuristic value of the typology we focus on agriculture, as a field of major relevance in this regard. The first three rationales, respectively underpinning industrial agriculture, ecosystem services and earth restoration programs, see material dependency as a problem to which the reply is mastering the world, though such mastery is understood differently. The fourth one, which underpins peasant agroecology, sees dependency as a constitutive-that is, unavoidable and formative-limitation, pointing to a caring, friendly attitude. We argue this outlook is crucial to a sustainability transition, and give a clue to the governance approach that may help support it.
Monde Commun , 2020
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Journal Articles by Laura Centemeri