van der Leeuw, S. (2014). French Resilience: Designing for Change on the Comtat Plain. Solutions 5(5): 88-92. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/french-resilience-designing-for-change-on-the-comtat-plain/
Solutions in History
French Resilience: Designing for Change on the Comtat Plain by Sander van der Leeuw
T
he Comtat Vénaissin plain is a small area in Southern France with such a specific economy and strong internal organization that it can be considered as a separate socioenvironmental unit, even though it is currently part of the Vaucluse département. It was part of the papal domain until 1814, when it was officially recognized as part of France. Two socio-environmental crises tested the resilience of the area: one in the 1860s and the other some 120 years later. These two crises brought out very different results, demonstrating how foresight, planning, and preparation are essential to resilience.
The 19th Century (c. 1860–1890)
The Yellowrider / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Changes in infrastructure, namely the construction of canals, helped to ease the crisis of the 19th century. 88  |  Solutions  |  September-October 2014  |  www.thesolutionsjournal.org
Three unexpected and sudden perturbations created an economic crisis for the Comtat in the mid-19th century: (1) the discovery of a chemical substitute for madder, a plant used to manufacture dye and one of the Comtat’s main agricultural products, (2) a Phylloxera epidemic that heavily damaged the region’s vineyards, and (3) the construction of a railway connecting Paris, Lyon, and Marseille that changed the geopolitical position of the Comtat and opened other markets to its products. Simultaneously, the area underwent other gradual perturbations, including rising imports of wheat following the opening of the national borders and imports of diseased silkworms from Asia that destroyed local silkworm breeding. Both wheat and silk were important sources of income for the Comtat at that time. Towards the end of the 19th century, and after much debate, the region’s farmers finally adopted substitutes for