Pratiques d'emploi et figures du patron en agriculture biologique. Contribution à une sociologie du travail indépendant

Abstract

Based on field research conducted among local farmers, this paper studies the employment practices of farmers who work in organic vegetable production. Focusing on workforce organisation and worker status within a farming sector in which precarious work is common, it shows and explains the multiple ways of being an employer in organic farming. My analysis reveals the extent to which social positions and trajectories structure employment practices, and examines how professional socialisations and economic constraints shape representations and practices, either to moderate the use of precarious work status, or conversely to prompt the recourse to undeclared work. While collective (and now institutional) rhetoric on organic farming stresses the role of the sector in creating jobs, the article reveals what really occurs, in terms of employment conditions, on these farms. It also tackles the way farmers attempt to neutralise the ethical tensions (sometimes) generated by their own practices.