ABSTRACT
The chapter shows how research grounded in network theory, using an interactionist model of the co-operative organisation, and reveals how such changes are dismantling the prevailing professional relations in the vinification co-operative firm. But it also highlights that the changes are simultaneously opening up new opportunities to develop relations between people afresh. 'Collective action for innovation' may rely on two interdependent items: relations to objects of collective action and interpersonal relations between people featuring different relations to these objects. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the relations of people to the objects of action on one hand, and of professional relationships between people on the other, has enabled us to grasp past and current dynamics relating to innovative collective action, and even to propose a model likely to help the analysis of on-going processes in rural settings. The rural co-operative, monitoring remunerative local specific activities systems and strengthened by common principles, could also remain a key actor in Languedoc contemporary society.
