La décision dans le village : l'exemple du remembrement

Decision-making in the village - the example of land-regrouping - How are decisions made in a village ? With reference to what ? and in what system of social relationships ? In view of the complexity of such an analysis it is often critical situations that are studied. Such « accidents » underline relationships and enable some aspects of the way society functions to be more easily identified. The regrouping of land, because of the different operations it involves the grouping of plots together with the exchange of plots and a modification of the road network. Instead of seeing land as a means of production, the farmers attach other forms of significance to it, which includes land as a factor of social status, the basis of the struggle for land tenure, the expression of their professional siatus as farmers. Thus land seen merely as a means of production, makes farm exchanges possible, but not without giving rise to resistance on the part of the farmers, for, for them, such an operation assumes they are able to exchange their experiences and social status. In a « commune » in the Rhone valley we have studied the way in which the land regrouping decision fitted into the existing social relationships, how the various groups, in particular the Council, and the Farmers' Union, reinterpreted it in terms of the balance of power in the « commune ». Finally, if such an operation fits into the existing pattern of viUage rivalries, it also modifies social relationships. In the case we studied power in the village, until then based on birth and wealth, gradually passed into the hands of those with technical competence - a new sign of social prestige.