Sociology of the field of earthen construction in France (1970-2020) ; Sociologie du champ de la construction en terre crue en France (1970-2020)

Abstract

The development of green building contributes to the legitimation of the use of construction materials that can take part in the fight against climate change. Among these materials, raw earth remains little invested in comparison with bio-based materials such as wood or straw. While the use of land was historically widespread in France, the construction processes incumbent on it (cob, rammed earth, mud, adobe) were removed during the 19th and 20th centuries. However, for about five decades, a field of earthen construction has been involved in promoting this material. In this research, it's about to show how the field of earthen construction has taken shape and what form it has taken by analyzing the historically variable forms of interest for earthen construction that the field requires and that the agents invest, that is to dialectize the history of the field and the incorporated social history of the agents who invest themselves in maintaining and updating the reified social history of earthen construction. This also makes it possible to analyze the social conditions of possibility of a development of earthen construction in France, in particular to measure the social conditions of possibility of a transformation of conventional construction to participate in a transformation of the social world favorable to the fight against climate change. This thesis is based on different empirical materials (interviews, archives, ethnographic observations, statistics) and mobilizes the sociology of fields to analyze the objective relationships between the fields and the agents involved in the field of earthen construction, which vary according to internal and external struggles in the field, in particular through public action which participates to define its autonomy and its relations of subordination. This research hypothesizes that the field of earthen construction is a field of forces which is at the base of economic and political struggles to maintain or transform it, in particular by orienting public action, so that ...