Cet article propose une analyse des liens entre la dynamique identitaire et l’engagement dans un projet de développement territorial, chez les agriculteurs biologiques. Adoptant une posture constructiviste, nous posons comme hypothèse que la dynamique identitaire, entendue comme une configuration particulière entre tensions identitaires et histoire de vie, influence le type de projet initié par l’agriculteur. Nous abordons le développement territorial dans sa double dimension de coordination des acteurs et de construction des ressources. Les deux études de cas réalisées soutiennent cette hypothèse.An Exploratory Study of the Links Between Identity Dynamics and Local Development. The Case of the Organic Farmers The links between the European agricultural crisis and the development of initiatives gathered under the name of not-conventional agriculture have been the object of many researches. Our article proposes an analysis of the links between identity dynamics of the organic farmers and their engagement in a project of local development. Adopting a constructivist point of view, we put forward the hypothesis that the organic farmer who starts a project of local development will build resources and set up coordination between actors according to his particular identity dynamics. Although the objective of this article is modest, it treats, according to us, an essential dimension that is seldom approached in research. Resources and methods of coordination do not exist at a rough state. They are built, modulated and transformed by the subject. We thus isolate here identity dynamics, like one of the entrance doors to understand a project of local development. Let us say from the beginning on that our research is just an exploratory step, illustrated by two case studies, which will require validation by research of greater extent. Antoine and Frederic are engaged in two different forms of local action. Antoine is the owner of a horticultural exploitation of average size in Flanders, which he has been running for 20 years. The interest of Antoine for organic agriculture started in the "after 68" period. After his studies came a non-fulfilling professional period which led to strong identity tensions. Antoine sank in depression. He left his job and engaged in organic agriculture. Frederic, a rich businessman, inherited a very big farm in Wallonia. He made the unpleasant discovery that the ground water below his lands was strongly polluted and that the origin of this problem was partially due to the use of chemical fertilisers. He decided to convert his lands into organic agriculture. We observe that as well Antoine as Frederic engaged in a project of local development. The two projects converge according to certain criteria but diverge according to others. Both included public welfare in their project and both implement effective strategies. Antoine developed, with his wife, a project carried primarily by small organic farmers, by an associative network and by a community of consumers. Frederic, on the opposite, mobilized large scale actors, such as a university, authorities, administrations and big farmers of the region. The two farmers mobilized different social, cultural and economic capitals, accumulated through their life-history. The difference between life style understood as heavy tendencies in their own trajectory, allows understanding, partially, the difference between the two projects. In the case of Antoine, the coordination between actors is a compromise between the civic, domestic and industrial "city", with a prevalence of the two first. In the case of Frederic coordination is based on a compromise between the civic, commercial and industrial "city", with a prevalence of the two last
