Convergence on Sustainable Lifestyles? Mechanisms of Change and Resistance in a French Allotment

This article aims to contribute to understanding convergence on sustainable lifestyles in relation to recent governmental promotion of sustainability. We analyse the effects of inducement to pro-environmental practices in amateur gardeners on an allotment, a group of plots of land collectively managed in an urban context. We examine the conditions in which allotment gardeners integrate practices and norms on sustainability. Through a one-year ethnographic research project consisting of observations and repeat interviews with gardeners, we demonstrate that while they adopt new cultural techniques for their plots, the meanings of their gardening practices differ, as do their relationships with the environment. We identify three ideal types of gardeners and show that the diffusion of pro-environmental practices is not systematically related to shared concerns and that the meaning of practices can be interpreted differently by policymakers and lay individuals.