Les jardins potagers, lieux d’échange et d’apprentissage collectif

Vegetable gardens contribute to territories? food autonomy. For a long time now, gardens have been at the heart of social and food dynamics in the policies of cities, large or small, in countries in both the Global South and the Global North. A fresh look may be cast at them, because they combine all the properties of a locally anchored object and are part of collective action processes related to food. The multifunctionality of gardens, the motivations of gardeners, production practices, and sociability practices were questioned and synthesized, based on interviews and participatory workshops in Billom Communauté. The diversity of actors gathered around the same spatial object?the garden?shows the capacity for integration of socio-spatial objects and presents socio-spatial organization as a commons for territorial development. The actors? practices can be considered social innovation. The network of gardeners in a rural territory can serve as a guiding thread for the link between the urban and the rural, by acting as a third place for exchange and collective learning.