Participation animation governance and sustainability in eco-disticts – PAGODE

• Complementarity of scientific methods and expertise in a systemic perspective.

The multi-dimensionality of the issues and concepts (governance, participation and urban sustainability) encourages complementarity between technical skills and theoretical knowledge. Cutting tools and common epistemological approaches, the complementary use of quantitative and qualitative approaches, or repositories already built by the technical underpinning these reconciliations. Systems analysis is the common conceptual framework chosen to make the complexity of the object écoquartier more intelligible, especially because its design, facilitates dialogue between different disciplines, including social sciences and between the sciences engineer. In addition to the methodological aspects, complementarity is also reflected in terms of optimization of the results of research (shared goals, best practices, joint publications and communications, construction of common reference, etc.).

• Complementarity of scales of observation.

PAGODA, offers a multi-scalar. Treatment of the problem will be at the «macro« (international comparison with Quebec), national (corpus Applications Contest national ecovillages in 2009 (160 cases) and 2010 (392 cases)), and «micro« - «The neighborhood and its inhabitants« - through a selection of cases and experiences at national and local (Bordeaux area). The observation mesological territories (regions and cities) is requested, together with a comparative reading including through case studies of Montreal neighborhoods.

• «Photograph« objectified universe EQ through national participation;
• Identification and analysis of participatory experiences around themes and innovative urban objects vectors participation (ESS, cultural actors, bodies, gardens, etc.).
• Transfer of technology: methodological guide / grid / diagnostic assessment;

One of the original pagoda is the prospect of «social sciences«. A second originality is posited multidisciplinary work. A final value of the research program pagoda is the nature of institutional partnerships forged with both policy makers at local (City of Bordeaux) and resource centers that produce expertise in the field of participation in eco-districts (CETE southwest, CERTU) or accompany communities in their efforts to produce sustainable cities.

Scientific perspectives of the project in relation to the expected operating, are opened by the following approaches:

• Approach to identify - or develop - the defining variables of écoquartier in connection with participation. It is not to construct an ideal type but to make an inventory that will query the object urban «eco-district«, participation, and the reality of land selected by reinstating social issues alongside environmental concerns.
• Analytical approach and distanced. It is around operations «ecovillages« themes and objects that relate to analyze the modalities of involvement - or not - of the human project.
• Approach comprehensive. This is the word back, interest, representations, expectations and motives, intentions, experiences and commitments of actors around ecovillages. The question of meaning is here asked, returning his full citizen mobilization in the construction and the social acceptability of the project.

If other products are expected in mid-program, the scientific production is especially marked by the production of articles, papers and seminars:

1. Symposium ISIAT / PAGODA, 2013, The role of animation in the project areas, 28 and 29 January, University of Bordeaux III - IUT Michel de Montaigne.
2. D'Andrea N. and Tozzi P., 2011, «« Animation and citizen participation in sustainable neighborhoods: Experiences French collective gardens «, 5th International Symposium RIA« animation, cultures and citizenship «, Zaragoza (Spain), October 26 to 28.
3. D'Andrea N. and Tozzi P., 2011, «Participation, animation ecovillages in French,« conference hosted by the University of Zaragoza, 6 and 7 May.
4. Di Meo G., 2011, «The territory and territoriality: a tension between fantasy and action,« paper presented at the seminar «Territories and Participation« PAGODA-CNRS-UMR ADES, October 20
5. Social economy: the case of the Darwin Eco-system Bordeaux «Twelfth Meeting of the Inter-University Network for Social and Solidarity Economy (RIUESS), Nancy / 6-8 June 2012« The social economy and attached to the challenges of social innovation and social change «18 p. www.riuess.org/index.php
6. Lafaye F., 2011, «The eco-neighborhoods without history or how to combine memory and future«, AFEA Congress, 21-24 September
7. Laugaa D. and Tozzi P., 2011, «From the injunction acquisition behaviors eco-citizens, the role of communication in operations« ecovillages «,« Symposium ARPEnv «The individual and society to the environmental uncertainty, «Lyon-Bron 8-10 June

The multidisciplinary team of the program PAGODE aims to analyze "the sustainable districts" as spaces of experiment for new forms of urban governance and participation of the inhabitants. The ANR program is an opportunity to investigate the modalities of action, mediation, decision-making and relations between main actors concerned by ecodistricts, durability and societal synergies. It seems important to begin a large-scale research to seize in a concrete way, and beyond the normative prescriptions, the reality of the human interactions facilitating or hindering the realization of the objectives of the ecodistrict. The researchers of the project PAGODE wish to attempt to identify and to characterize the particularities of these interactions. It will allow to measure significant dysfunctions, otherwise to find possible capitalizations and, maybe, to propose new modalities of participative management.
In a context where the local democracy becomes central, the inhabitants and the other actors of the civil society want the recognition of their "profane knowledge", it seems important to analyze the participative practices in the light of the actors’ strategies. The question of the articulation between the individual and the collective, will take its entire place in this work. From the analysis of a large number of current experiences on empowerment building, and with a thought respecting the theory-practice dialectic, the purpose is to elaborate a new approach of the ecodistrict, focused on the implication and the strategies of the social actors and not - as it is today often the case - on the technical innovations and the environmental solutions.