L'expérience située d'un public et de ses problèmes: écologie d'un rassemblement à Sainte-Soline (France)

Abstract. This article focuses on the dynamics of a public gathering to explore how, during a collective mobilization, a public experience of a problematic situation emerges. How is a space designed to host such a gathering ? What experiments are conducted within a gathering to define a problematic situation and imagine ways to resolve it ? How do participants build up a common base of shared knowledge, and how do they engage in collective actions with a view to becoming politically operational ? My analysis centers on the gathering that took place in Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres, France) in October 2022, where several thousand people came together to protest the construction of substitution reservoirs (commonly referred to as “mega-basins”). Using an ecological and pragmatist approach, which is rarely applied in the geographical study of collective action, we will show how the space of the “camp” allowed a double movement of concentration of participants around focal points of problematization, and diffraction of problems towards a variety of audiences. We will then show how the demonstration environment enabled participants to build practical and cognitive engagement both with the territory and the problematic situation.