In or out? Organisational dynamics within European ‘peasant seed’ movements facing opening-up institutions and policies

This paper explores the organisational dynamics of movements claiming for a peasant reappropriation of seeds, in a context where genetic resources issued from Participatory Plant Breeding programmes involving farmers are getting official recognition from the European Union. The two organisations in France and Italy under scrutiny illustrate different pathways. Drawing on Kriesi's framework, we interpret them as trajectories of institutionalisation, commercialisation, and conviviality. Whether or not seed activists should attempt to change the world from within institutions or from outside is highly disputed and remains open. It leads up to the connected issue of social base participation and internal democracy.