Comportements des acteurs dans le jeu et dans la réalité : indépendance ou correspondance ? Analyse sociologique de l'utilisation de jeux de rôles en aide à la concertation

摘要

"It doesn't matter, it's only a game!" this sentence summarizes the western perception of game instilled into children. For Freud, "the reverse of game is not the serious but reality". Paradoxically, an interdisciplinary group of researchers, ComMod, uses this tool to work on renewable resources management. The relevance of their research depends on the link between play and reality. Does the participation to a role-playing game (RPG) impact reality? The ComMod's issues about the use of companion modelling in renewable resource management systems define the context. By building our problematic on the analysis of researchers' thoughts, we aim at establishing the nature of the links between stakeholders' behaviours in the game and in reality. Developed on Goffman's and Bourdieu's sociologies frameworks, the method is based on a synergized analysis of information collected in game sessions and in reality. Two irrigated schemes in the Senegal River valley, where a companion modelling experiment has been initiated with the association of a RPG and a multi-agent system, are our fields' research. Our results show that the closeness between the system represented in the game and reality is helpful to participants' reflections. They characterized the simulacra played by explaining the differences from their reality. Thanks to the degrees of freedom given in the game, the players use their knowledge of the real system management to evolve in the simulacrum; proving how reality is invited in the game. Players' behaviours show the interference between play and reality and reveal part of their real social relationships. The final discussion indicates the relevance of ComMod's issues but RPG is not a self-sufficient social investigation tool.