Intervention sociologique et développement durable: le cas de la gestion intégrée des zones côtières

Abstract

Born in the eighties, politically legitimised at the Rio conference, the integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) notion names “a continuous and dynamic process which combines government and society, science and management, private and public interests in the preparation and execution of a plan concerning protection and development of coastal systems and resources: it aims at maximizing long term choices, emphasizing resources and their reasoned and reasonable use”. The ICZM process originates in the failure of former segmentized and short term development strategies, unable to cope with the multiple interactions of the development process. It encompasses an extremely wide range of phenomenons, economic, social, political, environmental, in a sustainable perspective. The social scientist's involvement in the process reaches beyond the specific fields of competence of actors, politicians, experts, managers, etc. Rooted in guidelines and diversified knowledges of local and regional realities, it aims at breaking down divisions and letting emerge dynamics in which all private and public actors, including social groups and even individuals, can take part and be involved in decision-making through proceedings basically anchored in communication, understood as a performative process, and ethics rather than expertise: an open and democratic undertaking which can be summed up as good governance. This process runs along with a renewed applied anthropology, which gives individuals and people a full recognition. Such an approach remains fragile and does not escape criticism, yet, it sets into a conceptual framework deeply influenced by American pragmatism, the more able to face the complex stakes concerning long term coastal zones development as it is backed with considerable funding capacities, close following and analysis of projects and growing worldwide experience.