Le régime de libre accès au service de la diversité institutionnelle ? Le cas de cinq systèmes participatifs de garantie pour gérer les labels écologiques en France

The social science literature on commons has seldom examined effects of open-access regimes on the diversity of organizational modes within communities managing a common-pool resource. This observation is even more apparent concerning knowledge common-pool resources, which constitute an emerging academic field. This article aims to address this gap in the literature by focusing on the case of Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) used to manage ecological labels in various industries in France. We made the hypothesis that the open-access nature of the PGS common pool resource, drives institutional diversity and enables rule adaptation to the specific context of each PGS organization. To test our hypothesis, we collected primary data through participatory workshops from five PGS communities in the agricultural sector, sustainable collective catering, and sustainable building. We adapted the analytical framework of Ostrom and Basurto (2011) by introducing two methodological variations to compare the governance systems of these organizations at a given point in time. Our results highlight significant diversity in the rule systems used by French PGS organizations. It is explained by differences among the business sector and the level of seniority of each PGS. The observed diversity is a source of richness and show genuine adaptation to the local context ? a key characteristic of sustainable management within the commons.