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This article investigates the mechanisms which enable reaching a compromise during a companion modeling process. The study is based on the application of companion modeling during the implementation of the meager fishery development plan in Mauritania. The elaboration of fishery development plans is embedded in Mauritanian regulations and imposes consulting local stakeholders before enacting new management rules. The companion modeling process consisted in a set of workshops aiming at building a shared vision of the meager industry and its resources. State agents were involved in this process as well as professionals (wholesalers, ship owners and fishermen) and scientific experts. Several interview campaigns were undertaken to analyze the elaboration of compromises, and workshops were observed and analyzed. Based on the assumption that participatory simulation workshops are key moments, our results show that the mechanisms that favor reaching a compromise during a companion modeling process are : social learning, unveiling, modification of the way actors interact and actors’ categorization. This article also investigates the benefits of articulating the elaboration of a usual fishery development plan with a companion modeling process. The latter allows building dialog arena between all stakeholders of the fishing sector. By doing so, it ensures the quality of the deliberation process and favors the acceptance of the plan.

The concepts of resilience and vulnerability have been used in different disciplines to analyze and manage the dynamics of geographical areas and social groups facing rapid and uncertain changes. Both concepts are used within a variety of frameworks of analysis of society-environment relationships. This article aims to review the different analytical frameworks and their respective contributions to the analysis of the interactions between social and ecological dynamics. While all reviewed frameworks take into account the interactions of individuals with their environment, they do not, however, assess the vulnerability and resilience at the same scales. In particular, some frameworks are actor-centered, while others are system-centered. We propose a framework which reconciles these two approaches. This framework considers a socioecosystem both as a specific representation of the environment offered by a stakeholder, and as a set of elements contributing to one final function, and organized in a hierarchy of levels of observation, in which each level corresponds to an intermediary function. We propose a participatory approach to confront the systemic representations that have been built by different actors about their environment, and in particular to confront the functions that have been assigned within these representations to the different levels of observation. This process is not intended to lead to a shared vision of an area and its functions, but rather to discuss the potential complementarity of the issues and stakes presented by different actors, before any further assessment of the vulnerability and resilience of the study area to specific changes.