Marché foncier et évolution des usages et des valeurs de la terre agricole à Regueb (Tunisie)

Résumé

À l’instar de nombreux autres pays, le gouvernement tunisien a entrepris depuis plusieurs décennies l’individualisation de la gestion du foncier agricole. Le régime des terres tribales en indivision, qui était prédominant dans le centre et le sud du pays, a été remplacé par un régime de propriété privée individuelle. Ceci a eu des effets importants sur les espaces ruraux : mutation des systèmes agraires et développement d’un marché foncier localisé, comme dans la région de Regueb, où les transactions impliquent des protagonistes allochtones depuis les années 1990. Il s’agit de comprendre ce processus de marchandisation de la terre, en analysant le « système local d’acteurs » du marché foncier, ainsi que les liens existant avec l’évolution des usages et valeurs de la terre agricole. Cette recherche se fonde sur une enquête de terrain effectuée entre 2012 et 2014 dans la région de Regueb. Elle montre comment les logiques capitalistes contribuent à recomposer cet espace rural et à fragiliser les droits fonciers des paysans. Cette fragilisation est en partie portée par des entrepreneurs et des spéculateurs aguerris, qui maîtrisent les rouages de ce système, et dont certains ont une longue histoire d’appropriation foncière dans l’arrière-pays de Sfax. En même temps, les logiques capitalistes demeurent mêlées à des logiques sociales endogènes, où l’économique ne surdétermine pas la vie sociale. La marginalisation socio-économique d’une partie des paysans, à laquelle nous assistons aujourd’hui, résulte ainsi à la fois de rapports de domination économiques et politiques, et de facteurs matériels et immatériels endogènes freinant l’expansion du capitalisme.

Mots-clés :

• marché foncier,
• propriété,
• usages,
• valeur de la terre,
• système local d’acteurs,
• inégalités,
• capitalisme,
• espace rural,
• Tunisie

Abstract

As in many other countries, the Tunisian government has been initiating a politics of individualization of the agricultural land management for several decades. The regime of tribal communal land, which was predominant in the centre and the south of the country, has been replaced by a regime of individual private ownership. This change has induced important impacts on the rural areas : agrarian changes and the development of a located land market, as in the region of Regueb, where the transactions involve foreign-born protagonists since the 1990s. The aim of this article is to understand the process of land commodification, by analysing the land market “local system of actors”, and the relationships between this system and the evolution of the uses and the values of a land. This article is based on a fieldwork research carried out between 2012 and 2014 in the region of Regueb. It shows how the capitalist logics contribute to the recomposition of this rural area and to weakening of the land rights of the peasants. This weakening is partially caused by some experienced entrepreneurs and speculators, who better know the inner workings of this capitalist system, including some people having a long story of land appropriation in the Sfax hinterland. At the same time, the capitalist logics remain mixed to endogenous social logics, where the economic dimension doesn’t strongly determine the social life. The current social and economic marginalization of a part of the peasants results both from economic and politic domination relationships, and from endogenous material and immaterial factors which slow down the expansion of capitalism.

As in many other countries, the Tunisian government has been initiating a politics of individualization of the agricultural land management for several decades. The regime of tribal communal land, which was predominant in the centre and the south of the country, has been replaced by a regime of individual private ownership. This change has induced important impacts on the rural areas : agrarian changes and the development of a located land market, as in the region of Regueb, where the transactions involve foreign-born protagonists since the 1990s. The aim of this article is to understand the process of land commodification, by analysing the land market “local system of actors”, and the relationships between this system and the evolution of the uses and the values of a land. This article is based on a fieldwork research carried out between 2012 and 2014 in the region of Regueb. It shows how the capitalist logics contribute to the recomposition of this rural area and to weakening of the land rights of the peasants. This weakening is partially caused by some experienced entrepreneurs and speculators, who better know the inner workings of this capitalist system, including some people having a long story of land appropriation in the Sfax hinterland. At the same time, the capitalist logics remain mixed to endogenous social logics, where the economic dimension doesn’t strongly determine the social life. The current social and economic marginalization of a part of the peasants results both from economic and politic domination relationships, and from endogenous material and immaterial factors which slow down the expansion of capitalism.:

• land market,
• ownership,
• uses,
• social value of land,
• local system of actors,
• inequalities,
• capitalism,
• rural area,
• Tunisia