Rhoda Fofack-Garcia
email: rhoda.fofack.garcia@france-energies-marines.org

Camille Mazé

Georges Safi

Morgane Lejart

Nathalie Chauvac

Maud Thermes

Olivier Ragueneau

François Le Loc'h,

Nathalie Niquil

François Le Loc'h

Socio-political acceptability of floating offshore wind farms in France: challenges and perspectives for marine governance towards sustainability

niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

INTRODUCTION

In the early 2010s, a strong political ambition to develop offshore wind (OW) energy has emerged in France. As part of the shift towards a decarbonized energy system and an increase in the share of renewable energy in the national energy mix, the energy transition strategy dedicated to offshore renewable energy quickly focused on the deployment of offshore wind technologies (Nadaï and Labussière, 2014;[START_REF] Oiry | Développer les énergies marines renouvelables sur la façade atlantique française : entre contestation et planification[END_REF]. Bottom-fixed offshore wind turbines first, then floating ones. Bottom-fixed OW is the most advanced technology, and it is expected to be the main contributor to the growth of renewables energies in the electricity mix. Concretely, this means four commercial offshore wind farms awarded in 2012, and a steady rhythm of planning for new projects to date, corresponding to a total planned capacity of six gigawatts by 2030. In parallel, in the mid-2010s, French political strategy started to focus on floating OW, with the planning of four pilot farms, one in the Atlantic façade and three in the golf of Lion (Mediterranean façade) for an average of 30 megawatts of installed capacity each. Since larger commercial floating offshore wind farms (OWF) projects are already planned, the shift towards floating OW energy now represents a major technological breakthrough. Floating OW turbines allow the exploration of offshore wind resources that were previously out of reach, due to depth limitations, but which are considered more abundant. Floating wind turbines could be installed up to 100 meters depth from the shore [START_REF] Rogier | Floatgen project engineering, installation and operation, Ideol[END_REF] enabling to use ocean resources previously out of reach. In addition to reinforcing French strategic position among the leading countries in Europe for the development of an increasingly mature technology, floating OW turbines present another notable asset. If conflicts with other uses will depend on the amount of area needed to achieve the established production objectives (Steins et al, 2021;[START_REF] Spijkerboer | Unravelling institutional work patterns: Planning offshore wind farms in contested space[END_REF], the initial assumption was about improving a sector that could be, theoretically, less controversial or disrupted than its bottom-fixed counterpart, in terms of cohabitation between other maritime uses and due to the increase in distance from the coast [START_REF] Hübner | Acceptabilité accrue grâce à des distances d'éloignement accrues? Une étude comparative psycho-environnementale[END_REF][START_REF] Oiry | Conflits et stratégies d'acceptabilité sociale autour des énergies marines renouvelables sur le littoral français[END_REF].

But, to what extent is this statement representative of the reality? How the implementation of floating OWF projects is negotiated and what are the factors that influence their sociopolitical acceptability? The issue of social acceptability emerges in contexts of transformation of natural and social environments as a result of policies aimed at introducing new technological systems [START_REF] Devine-Wright | Rethinking NIMBYism: The role of place attachment and place identity in explaining place-protective action[END_REF]Aitken M., 2010). The notion refers to the degree of reception of policies or projects by the stakeholders involved and/or concerned by these projects. But rather than focusing on systematic oppositions, social acceptability questions the mechanisms and processes of concertation that support the reception of these projects [START_REF] Flanquart | Nous sommes tous des nimbystes : plaidoyer pour l'utilisation de la notion d'acceptabilité sociale[END_REF][START_REF] Devine-Wright | Rethinking NIMBYism: The role of place attachment and place identity in explaining place-protective action[END_REF] strategies deployed by the stakeholders to defend their interests [START_REF] Boissonade | Mettre à l'épreuve l'acceptabilité sociale[END_REF][START_REF] Oiry | Développer les énergies marines renouvelables sur la façade atlantique française : entre contestation et planification[END_REF], and the capacity of these processes to deal with sometimes very contrasting visions (Nadaï and Labussière, 2014).

To better understand the socio-political impediments to the implementation of floating OWF, we conducted a study of the local governance process around the implementation of one of the first floating OWF farms in France, in the Bay of Biscay, Atlantic façade. This paper focuses on the main local stakeholders' positions involved in the decision-making process concerning the assessment of the environmental impacts of the project, as part of the licensing process. Obtaining environmental permit for a given floating OWF requires from project developers to conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) on their project. The EIA consists in identifying ecological receptors that may be impacted by the planned project, and for which potential changes are predicted [START_REF] Coston-Guarini | Re-inventing environmental impact assessment with a systems-based approach[END_REF]. By "ecological receptor", we mean the biological species, population or the ecological condition that could be impacted [START_REF] Fath | Ecological network analysis metrics: The need for an entire ecosystem approach in management and policy[END_REF]. EIA also relies on the choice of spatial and temporal scale of potential impacts and the determination of the impact magnitude. Environmental impacts then characterizes interactions amongst the floating OW farm and the marine ecosystem. The EIA validation is part of the application for an environmental permit. This validation is an administrative process in which the range of stakeholders included is clearly identified, and all must be consulted to collect their opinions (positive or negative) on the EIA results. We argue that a deep insight into different decision-makers' visions of impacts within this process is key to understand complex mechanisms that govern the issuance (or not) of environmental permits in a specific context of marine adaptative management [START_REF] Folke | Adaptative governance of socialecological systems[END_REF]. This article raises the following questions: how do political decision-making perceive, value and relate to the marine ecosystem in presence of a floating OWF? How do ecological factors shape decision making, and what ecological factors are involved? The paper suggests a network perspective in the analysis of the local marine social-ecological system (SES) by: 1) identifying nested social-ecological variables and key social-ecological networks influencing the licensing process in the floating OWF sector in France, 2) analyzing the power positions [START_REF] Olsson | Sustainability transformations: a resilience perspective[END_REF] and the functioning of interactions through an ethnography of the political-administrative process, and questioning in a pragmatic way the place of the environment [START_REF] Deldrève | La fabrique des inégalités environnementales en France. Approches sociologiques qualitatives[END_REF][START_REF] Bödin | Social networks and natural resource management, Uncovering the social fabric of environmental governance[END_REF] in a marine SES towards sustainability.

The remainder of this article is organized in five sections. Section 1 describes the conceptual framework developed and applied to highlight complex social and ecological interactions from different visions of impacts. Section 2 presents the case study of Groix & Belle-Île floating OWF pilot project and the methodology for collecting survey data. Section 3 provides the results of the complex interactions analysis, with the identification of key socialecological variables and networks. Section 4 discusses the relevance of the network perspective in informing public management. Conclusions and policy implications are stated in Section 5.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

A conceptual framework (Fig. 1) was developed i) to understand the ecological factors most likely to influence decision-makers' reception of floating OWF and ii) to map networks of socio-ecological interactions that are driving the local marine environmental governance in the process of implementing floating OWF. Grounded in the SES approach, the socio-genesis of the conceptual framework echoes its objective and challenges. Making this conceptual framework operational for our study implies coupling quite distant frames using a network analysis. The study mobilized the network perspective to deepen the analysis of the reciprocal interactions between technical objects and social-ecological systems in decision-making.

Sociogenesis

The SES approach has a long tradition of understanding complex systems (Gunderson et al. 1995) and is widely recognized in various fields to be able to deal with nonlinear ecological and human dynamics in decision making (Schulter et al. 2012). Since the beginning of 00s, there have been many advances in interdisciplinary research to analyze and model SES. They have proposed a wide range of conceptual frameworks for the analysis of these intertwined social and natural systems (Binder et al. 2011). Considering the conceptualization of interactions between the social and ecological systems and its dynamics, the literature has evolved from unidirectional interactions analysis to a focus on the reciprocity between the social system and the ecological system including feedback loops and learning processes in the social system in response to changes in the ecological system (Scholz 2011;Binder et al. 2011;Scholz and Binder 2003).

This feedback loop approach is particularly interesting in the analysis of the SES structure and functioning when put in the perspective of the prism of politics and power [START_REF] Olsson | Sustainability transformations: a resilience perspective[END_REF][START_REF] Bödin | Social networks and natural resource management, Uncovering the social fabric of environmental governance[END_REF], especially in marine SES [START_REF] Mazé | The concept of transformation towards sustainability: from science to public[END_REF]. By anchoring both sociopolitical and ecological issues in a context of technological changes, the feedback loop approach under the prism of power present some analytical advantages for advanced research on SES. One of them is about dealing with a critical challenge, that Binder et al. (2011) formulated as follows: "to what extent are the social and the ecological systems treated equally with respect to analytical depth?". To address this critical issue, [START_REF] Niquil | The Merits of Loop Analysis for the Qualitative Modeling of Social-Ecological Systems in Presence of Offshore Wind Farms[END_REF] have deepened the instrumentation of this loop analysis framework applied to the development of offshore renewable energies. Within the loop analysis framework, each relationship between ecological and sociological variables, as well as changes appearing in variables self's dynamics, are included in a qualitative analysis. Our objective is to illustrate the usefulness of the SES framework for identifying the nested variables that exist in complex marine and coastal SES facing a major technological change, here the arrival of a new floating OWF).

Treating complex reciprocal reactions in the SES is usually done using principle where "A" has an action on "B", and in return, "B" modifies "A". However, the notion of feedback also considers the temporal dynamics in interaction processes [START_REF] Clauzel | Times of Territories. Introduction to the special section[END_REF][START_REF] Labussière | Les temporalités entremêlées des processus de transition énergétique[END_REF], and the impact these temporalities may have on both feedback trajectories inthe-making and on the unexpected outcomes of a collective action [START_REF] Ostrom | Governing the Commons. The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action[END_REF]. For this reason, we include a second perspective where "A" has an action on "B" until "A" realizes that the action on "B" can be favorable to its own development [START_REF] Coston-Guarini | Re-inventing environmental impact assessment with a systems-based approach[END_REF].

These two principles of interaction combined are more strongly emphasized in the network analysis (as developed below), which questions what the technic does to the SES and how the SES responds to the technic.

Our proposal explores nested social-ecological variables by focusing on the network perspective which we consider able i) to conceptualize ecological factors from an anthropocentric perspective (since our entry point is the social-political reception of a technical object and the perceptions of its potential ecological impacts); ii) to introduce a common language to select and analyze different variables; and iii) to address both scientific research and decision-making or practitioners. Therefore, the network is mobilized in this study as a frontier-object [START_REF] Mazé | Power in action. Opening the black box of the governance of coastal & marine social-ecological systems (SES), Poster ILTER 1st Open science meeting[END_REF] between SES subsystems. By pushing the limits of each subsystem [START_REF] Ostrom | A general framework for analyzing sustainability of social-ecological systems[END_REF], the network deal both with ecological components or variables (resource units and systems) and social variables (actors, governance rules and processes) and their crossed dynamics of interactions. Moreover, it contributes to an equal exploration of these variables, as well as a holistic view of interactions that govern the overall SES structure, functioning and managing. The objective of this article is to apply this multi-scale and SES framework to investigate the socio-political reception of floating OW turbines in a context of multiple transformations.

The network perspective to address social-ecological interactions

Building an integrative framework for an advanced natural and social sciences interface, in presence of a floating OWF project, means coming back to our theoretical basis. The paper explores possible connections between network approaches from the natural and social sciences for an integrated view of interactions between variables (Fig 1). Rather than opposing these different approaches, we try to consolidate the potential links and coherences in the way of valuing network properties. The network perspective in our problematic directly addresses building interdisciplinarity between natural and social sciences. It also deals with the issue of informing marine governance on the nature and extent of social-ecological transformations arising from OWF deployment. <Figure 1#> Applying the network perspective to investigate nested variables in a marine and coastal Socialecological system. Following [START_REF] Ostrom | A general framework for analyzing sustainability of social-ecological systems[END_REF], we use the term "variables" to denote nodes issued from both social and ecological subsystems. If the term "variables" is common to marine ecologists, social scientists mostly use "actors" or "nodes". We set up a common frame by denoting "sociological variables" and "ecological variables" for those related respectively to the social and ecological subsystems.

On the one hand, marine ecologists consider Ecological Network Analysis (ENA) as a "systems-oriented methodology to analyze within system interactions used to identify holistic properties that are otherwise not evident from the direct observations'' [START_REF] Fath | Ecological network analysis: network construction[END_REF][START_REF] Rogier | Floatgen project engineering, installation and operation, Ideol[END_REF]. Because a change in the structure and functioning of an ecological system is a response to both natural and anthropogenic stresses, ENA provides outputs to assess system development and resilience [START_REF] Ulanowicz | Community measures of marine food networks and their possible applications[END_REF][START_REF] Ulanowicz | The dual nature of ecosystem dynamics[END_REF][START_REF] Saint-Béat | Trophic networks: How do theories link ecosystem structure and functioning to stability properties? A review[END_REF]. ENA is mostly applied to study ecological networks using metrics for assessment and management (Niquil et al. 2012, Safi and[START_REF] Rogier | Floatgen project engineering, installation and operation, Ideol[END_REF]. Rather than applying a fragmented approach to understand ecosystem changes, ENA applies a holistic function-based criterion and a wide range of indicators that captures the basic properties of ecosystem interactions and networks in space and over time [START_REF] Kazanci | Chapter 3system-wide measures in ecological network analysis[END_REF][START_REF] Fath | Ecological network analysis metrics: The need for an entire ecosystem approach in management and policy[END_REF]).

On the other hand, social sciences developed Social Network Analysis (SNA), a major methodological and conceptual paradigm to understand actors' behavior and social relationships, and social organizations [START_REF] Galaskiewicz | Social Network Analysis: Concepts, Methodology, and Directions for the 1990s[END_REF]. SNA qualifies relationships among social actors and social positions at large-system scales, either at the macro-level to describe the structure of a social system or at the micro-level to analyze faceto-face relationships (Goffmann, 1974), their characteristics, attributes, values and egocentered networks [START_REF] Laumann | Networks of Collective Action: A Perspective on Community Influence Systems[END_REF]. In addition to the development of new methods to study social networks, SNA has some important theoretical outputs to incorporate social network ideas in the theory of action [START_REF] Galaskiewicz | Social Network Analysis: Concepts, Methodology, and Directions for the 1990s[END_REF].

In this study, we consider institutions or organizations as the product of interactions (1) that are not stable and (2) that occur between many networks involving human and non-human actors [START_REF] Callon | Some elements of a sociology of translation: domestication of the scallops and the fishermen of St Brieux Bay, in: Law J. Power, Action and Belief[END_REF][START_REF] Latour | La science en action. Introduction à la sociologie des sciences[END_REF][START_REF] Latour | La science en action. Introduction à la sociologie des sciences[END_REF], Law 1982). The two assumptions developed by actor-network theory (ANT) underpin our analysis of marine SES and closely orient the way we explore SNA methods. Actor-network theory invites us to think about the role of objects (i.e., non-human actors) in the transformation of social systems, mechanisms by which social actors and groups are transformed -at the same time as they are exploited or usedby ecological objects. ANT also examines new mediations and new forms of interactions between society and environment [START_REF] Akrich | Comment décrire les objets techniques ? Techniques & Culture[END_REF], thereby revealing the parallel between socio-institutional responses to environmental change and environmental reactions to a shift in the socio-institutional and socio-political contexts.

Concerning new mediations and forms of interactions that could occur in a transforming SES, we assume -in agreement with SNA-that those techniques play a significant role by mediating actors' relations with their biophysical environment. Techniques are built and exist in relation to the society that defines its social character. As they are tools that have been created and designed to respond to specific social needs, techniques such as offshore wind energy are considered as technical objects [START_REF] Akrich | Comment décrire les objets techniques ? Techniques & Culture[END_REF]. Their primary function is to make available to society, offshore renewable resources that were previously inaccessible. Thus, they materialize ongoing economic, social-political and energy strategies related to the marine environment. Furthermore, with their networking capacity [START_REF] Simondon | Psychosociologie de la technicité[END_REF], technical objects attract the membership, and sometimes lead to the exclusion, of one or more social groups of actors who are interested in the use and exploitation of the offshore renewable resources [START_REF] Callon | Some elements of a sociology of translation: domestication of the scallops and the fishermen of St Brieux Bay, in: Law J. Power, Action and Belief[END_REF]). Socio-technical mediations are not only about human-environment interactions, but also about how actors interact in their face-to-face relationships with the aim of gaining control or management of their environment [START_REF] Goffman | Frame analysis: An essay on the organization of experience[END_REF]. In these face-to-face interactions to which actors bring their own history, values, and interests, two complementary processes should be considered: how actions and expectations originating from a heterogeneous chain of social agents can converge in specific social and political forms [START_REF] Latour | La science en action. Introduction à la sociologie des sciences[END_REF][START_REF] Latour | La science en action. Introduction à la sociologie des sciences[END_REF]); and mechanisms by which technical objects, actors and social structures bring their heterogeneous components together [START_REF] Law | Notes on the Theory of the Actor-Network: Ordering, Strategy and Heterogeneity[END_REF]). The SNA theoretical framework allows analysis of complex systems as it incorporates, in a non-linear perspective, a large number of social, technical and ecological entities that interact at different levels. As the analytical framework has major consequences for the methodological choices we made with SNA modeling, ANT nicely fits our analysis of marine social-ecological networks.

Finally, the common element between the two frameworks (ENA and SNA) is the Network, not only the syntax, as we saw. While ENA focuses on ecological interactions, with the support of ANT, SNA emphasizes the complex interactions between human and non-human actors, connected via a technical object.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

To apply our network perspective, we considered the study case of the floating OWF pilot project of Groix & Belle-Île (Bay of Biscay, France). The survey methodology combines semi-structured interviews with ethnographic observation.

Data collection

Data were collected from public and private actors involved in the process of decision-making concerning the Groix & Belle-Île floating OWF pilot project. Once designated, Eolfi-Shell and RTE run the public consultations to get administrative permits that will enable the final project implementation. Amongst these permits: the environmental authorization, a declaration of public utility and a concession for use of the public maritime domain. An exemption for Natura 2000 areas was also required insofar as the park and its electrical connection path area overlapped 1% of the Natura 2000 area.

The data collection concerns the process of obtaining the environmental permit, which is supported by the validation of the EIA provided by Eolfi-Shell and RTE. This is an administrative and political process where the two coordinating prefects (Maritime Prefect and Regional Prefect) consult with several key stakeholders to give their opinions on the consistency of the EIA considering: i) the identification of ecological receptors that may be impacted by the planned project, and for which potential changes are predicted, ii) the methodology of impacts assessments, meaning the choice of spatial and temporal scale of potential impacts survey; and finally iii) the determination of the impact magnitude concerning each receptor.

The opinions thus focus mainly on environmental concerns but could also address technological and socio-economic issues (fisheries, marine spatial planning, marine security) related to OWF. Consulted stakeholders can give a positive, negative or under reserve opinion. The prefects consider an opinion as favorable if the consulted stakeholder does not respond.. Each opinion collected by the Coordinating Prefects constitutes a corpus of official documents that we have examined. A total of 37 official opinions are involved.

We also collected data in semi-structured interviews with actors who participated in this political and administrative process of EIA validation. 14 semi-structured interviews were then conducted (Table 1) between October 2018 and April 2019, each lasting an average of 1 hour. Considering the floating OWF timeline, interviews were set up as project developers had just submitted their applications for the environmental permit, and both consenting (public consultation) and permitting processes were ongoing. The table illustrates types of actors involved. The civil and military navigation actors involve for instance the commander of the maritime area and the local nautical commission. Among the state services are the departmental directorates for the territory and the sea (DDTM) or the regional directorates for the environment and coastal development (DREAL). The State also relies on the opinion of its technical services such as the French Biodiversity Office (OFB).

13 co-visibility municipalities were consulted as local authorities. The most important socioeconomic group here is represented by the regional and departmental fishing committees. As independent bodies, these include the environmental authority, the national council for nature protection (CNPN) and the expert commission for risk assessment, nature and landscape (CDNPS). Finally, following the administrative process, we crossed paths with scientific research institutions as IFREMER in Brest, which brings together specialists in the Bay of Biscay's marine ecosystem.

The data collection was complemented by 2 ethnographic observation notes. The notes are the result of ethnographic observations of interactions during monitoring meetings of the OWF pilot project and during a research campaign at sea to characterize the marine ecosystem (Le Loc'h and Grall, 2018: APPEAL ATL 18-1). In the first case, we primarily observed interactions between actors, as well as the potential blockages (ecological, socio-economic, technological) as the implementation project evolves. In the second case, the observation focuses on the method of selecting and making visible the ecological components in the very first phase of characterizing their environmental status.

Our method is based on the identification of co-quotes by the different actors involved in a corpus of diverse texts (37 official opinions, 14 interviews and 2 ethnographic observation notes). The extraction of co-quotes was done manually [START_REF] Barthe | Entrepreneurs de circonstance : une enquête sociologique sur les fondateurs de start-up en France[END_REF] while the NVivo software served for building the network sociogram.

RESULTS

Summary of nested variables in the Groix & Belle-Île SES

The Figure 3 (see the table version in the supplementary material) below details the list of nested variables that exist in the Groix & Belle-Île SES. These are the social-ecological variables that stakeholders in the decision-making process co-quote as key and that justify their positions regarding the park. There are 111 variables, including 61 sociological variables and 50 ecological variables. 2

The first part of the table cites all the sociological variables while the second part identifies the ecological variables that decision-makers mention. Sociological variables are classified by type of actors with a color code for each category. The scale of intervention is also specified (N=national, R= regional or L= local). Among the sociological variables, we can find actors consulted within the administrative process of the EIA validation and outside this process, such as environmental organizations, engineering firms and offshore wind industries.

If the number of variables on both sociological and ecological sides is quite balanced, this was not a constraint at the beginning. This highlights one of the main strengths of our identification approach: the number of variables is not limited or mandatory. It is important to identify and include in an exhaustive way all sociological and ecological variables that can have an influence on stakeholders' position regarding the park.

Identification of key social-ecological networks

Links between the variables in Figure 3 (see also the supplementary material) were analyzed using the NVivo software. According to the findings in Table 2, two Nvivo cases were considered: "Species and ecological components" and "Actors". The links between these two cases were of a "who cites who" (or what) type, to make visible ecological concerns from the social system perspective. This is indeed a one-directional coding where the interaction seems to act in one direction only. But the ANT framework has shown that if they are not directly expressed, the ecological elements emerge in the decision-making process through mediators.

Mediators are of twofold relevance to decision-makers: facilitating dialogue between different points of view and balancing sometimes contrasting interests

Synergies and tradeoffs over benthic habitats: actors' power as main driver

Figure 4 shows the positions of different ecological and sociological variables in the networks. The direction of the arrow heads denoted that the "nodes" actors expressed their interests (to protect, use, or manage) for the nodes ecological variables, which therefore influence actors 'positions in the consenting process.

The first observation is the centralized nature of the networks. The structure of the networks highlights the pivotal positions of both the Environmental Authority (Ae) and the French Office for the Biodiversity (OFB) when it comes to environmental impacts, the identification of key receptors and the determination of impacts magnitude.

Ae and OFB fulfill their traditional role in defending marine ecosystem. But these two major environmental representatives are not alone, as also intervenes the regional direction for the Environment and coastal development, DREAL. But DREAL's missions are not restricted to marine ecosystems preservation, as it coordinates the coastal and marine socio-economic development.

Ae, OFB and DREAL share another interest in the network as they are specifically closed to benthic habitats and benthic species: megafauna, algae, laminar and sea pen. Benthic habitats and species where two sticking points on which discussions on environmental impacts of the OWF focused before and during the administrative process for obtention of final administrative permits or authorizations. One specific case clearly illustrates this focus point on benthic habitats/species and how it has transformed social-political and social-ecological interactions as the approval of the OWF project was involved. Indeed, by emphasizing the ecological variable "laminar", these three actors provoked the modification of the initial path of the submarine power cable for electric connection intended by RTE, the electrical transmission operator of the OWF project.

OFB, followed by DREAL and Ae (Fig. 5), was the first actor to stress the importance of benthic habitats and species. In its opinion released in December 2017, the OFB started by highlighting that the EIA did not consider the two receptors sea pen and megafauna.

Therefore, OFB introduced in the debate on environmental impacts, these two variables which were excluded. In a second time, OFB noted that if the EIA mentioned a zone of laminar, there was no precision on the percentage of laminar zone potentially impacted (or not) by the path of the submarine power. Finally, OFB's opinion concluded with a strong opposition to the intended path of the submarine power cable to avoid a major ecological zone of laminar.

In the same vein, DREAL's first opinion also stressed the necessity to provide alternative measures to the intended path.

<Figure 5#> Timeline of opinions releases of the three main actors highlighting the Benthos.

Thie timeline (Fig. 5) shows 1) the temporal evolution of interactions that are not static in time and 2) the impact of these temporal trajectories on the processes of interactions in-themaking. DREAL released two times its opinion, the first one expressing its reserves and the second one after the responses of the industrial project leaders, to confirm its positive opinion.

OFB, DREAL and Ae finally released a positive opinion to the OWF project, but with technical and scientific reserves. The reactions of the project developers (Eolfi-Shell and RTE) to the first strong opposition from OFB and DREAL and the adjustment measures negotiated within the network have led to a progressive shift in the positions in favor of obtaining environmental permit.

According to the EIA published in 2017, the best technical and financial solution to implant the submarine power cable was involving a zone of laminar. Therefore, the EIA proposed certain measures to reduce and monitor potential impacts on this sensitive habitat. In fact, geotechnical studies and campaigns started in 2016 were still ongoing. Thanks to additional campaigns and due to the joint emphasis of OFB and DREAL, the electrical operator RTE started to consider other options for the submarine power cable's path. Among these options, avoid the total location of the zone of laminar was not an alternative considering diverse financial and technical constraints. Indeed, for the best scenario, the path of the submarine power cable may still involve 1% of this zone of laminar. By this way, it would be possible to reduce the residual impact of the project, from "high" to "marginal". A document which summarizes complementary studies to the EIA on this subject was published in July 2018. It gives new clarifications on environmental impacts and responses to public actors' opinion.

The final path of the submarine power cable has been discussed until the end of the administrative instruction of the OWF project in 2019. An administrative instruction closed with the obtention of the environmental permit (the prefectoral decree of May 2019) to implement the grid connection, but without a clear obligation in this permit related to the avoidance of laminar.

However, the prefectoral decree stressed out another issue about the design of the submarine power cable and its trenching, to minimize impacts of the electromagnetic field on marine environment, notably the benthos. If the previous concern was about maintaining a specific range of the marine biodiversity (by avoiding it), the actual one is related to how to minimize impacts that could not be avoided. There are here two approaches of the conservation where the second focuses on measures for reduction of risks (known and unknown), mid and longterm reporting to control the potential changes, due to this electromagnetic field, on species behavior and the ecosystem functioning all along the submarine power cable lifecycle. The main measure of impacts reduction presented by public environmental actors here is the trenching of (rather than rip rap) the submarine power cable. RTE initiated closed discussions with OFB to understand its position on laminar and to negotiate an alternative solution to the path which could satisfy ecological stakes, remain technically feasible and economically viable regarding the total cost of the project. The intensity of the interactions between OFB, DREAL and RTE by the mediation of laminar has been built through meetings RTE initiated all along the process of administrative related to the obtention of administrative permits.

The ethnography of the decision-making process reveals how actors at the regional scale (OFB and DREAL) lead a dynamic role. In the dynamics of the implementation of new OWF projects, the environmental public action is territorial, focused on issues and actors of the territory of implementation. From a legal and formal point of view, the OFB's opinion is only consultative. However, in an informal way, OFB's favorable opinion is essential before the end of the administrative instruction. As a State technical operator providing expertise on biodiversity, a scientific and technical support at the local, regional and national scales of governance, OFB support policies on best ways to reconcile technological development and the environment protection. That explain the need of its consent which could be, as we see in our case study, the result of a negotiated process between ecological issues (species, habitats) and other economic, technical stakes. This negotiated process can be seen as an obligatory crossing point [START_REF] Callon | The sociology of an Actor-Network[END_REF][START_REF] Callon | Some elements of a sociology of translation: domestication of the scallops and the fishermen of St Brieux Bay, in: Law J. Power, Action and Belief[END_REF] as OFB position could 1) enrich and orient decisional actors' consents, 2) influence Ae's opinion which intervenes further downstream in the decision process and 3) can be relayed through opinions expressed by the public and various environmental organizations during the public concertation.

Social-ecological networks valuing ecological clusters among individual species

The analysis of social-ecological networks shows the prevalence of ecological clusters among individual species or variables when it comes to valuing marine ecosystem. Three main ecological clusters emerged: protected species and areas, fisheries, and the land-sea continuum.

The first cluster on protected species and areas involved, besides OFB and DREAL, the National committee for the protection of the nature, CNPN, a public independent entity dedicated to providing environmental expertise on OWF impacts. The category "protected species" gather specific ecological groups and populations. Avifauna on the one hand, including breeding and non-breeding populations: balearic shearwater, northern gannet, gulls (lesser black-backed gull, European herring gull, great black-backed gull). Marine Megafauna (marine mammals and elasmobranchs) on the other hand: dolphin, ray, basking shark, sea turtle. Concerning protected areas, we mean zones, locations that form an ecological niche for specific species. The area Natura 2000 notably appears in this cluster, as well as some special zones of conservation (Groix, Etel), the Quiberon Bay and the dunes (of Erdeven, Plouharnel and Gâvres in Quiberon). Due to their reglementary status (European Union Framework Directive on habitats, flora and fauna, IUCN red lists), the presence of protected species and protected areas played a "lamp" effect all along the permitting process. Indeed, they have particularly been stressed from the beginning of the OWF project and this stress has gradually grown. OFB for instance underlined the underestimation of magnitude of pressures and impacts associated in mentioned protected species as well as the necessity to involve as ecological receptors all current protected species when they are not cited into the EIA. Special derogations had to be fulfilled, which confirm residual impacts of the pilot OWF, or acknowledge that adequate measures have been taken to reduce, compensate impacts and to report risks.

The second cluster representing fisheries is to promote fishermen interests. The most cited variables here are then fisheries sector and fishermen. Fisheries and ichthyofauna are two closed variables. But while fisheries highlight the commercial value of the ichthyofauna (the regional and departmental fisheries committees), the mention of ichthyofauna itself (OFB) is more in a conservative approach. According to the fisheries statistics SACROIS which provides one of the most accurate and complete information on fisheries in the Bay of Biscay (Ifremer, 2013), three main commercial species structure fisheries in the Bay of Biscay: the sole (Solea solea), the hake (Merluccius merluccius) and the lobster (Nephrops norvegicus).

Species are not specifically cited in our cluster that highlights instead a description of a major socio-economic sector (fishing fleet, fishing areas) and how (far) the pilot OWF could potentially impact the density, availability of fishing productions and therefore fishermen's incomes.

At last, the third cluster focuses on the sea-land continuum and its patrimonial value. There are two approaches to patrimonial value here: from an ecological point of view and from an aesthetic perspective. The patrimonial and ecological value of the land-sea continuum in Gâvres Quiberon has been recognized through the "Grand Site" national labialization in 2018 and the creation of the Grand Site Gâvres and Quiberon Union to safeguard the largest dune massif in the Brittany region. The Gâvres Quiberon Union pointed out (with the DREAL) the necessary coherence of the grid connection landing with the protection of the dunes. Legally, the opinion expressed by the Gâvres Quiberon Union does not have a binding force. In reality, the labialization occurred during the permitting process has resulted in an increase in the power position (and potential blocking capacity) of the Union. Obtaining the Gâvres Quiberon Union consent on the grid connection landing was a critical issue for the pilot OWF project.

This cluster also highlights aesthetic issues of the coastland as "remarkable landscapes". The debates at this point mainly concern the visual impacts of OW turbines on four main municipalities of co-visibility: Groix (14km off the park), Belle-Île (19km) Quiberon (23km).

The coastlands areas of these localities are acknowledged for their beauty, their touristic and patrimonial values. The focus point was then about a potential degradation of the quality and values of these landscapes. Concerning OWF impacts on landscapes, one of the most important opinions expected is from the departmental commission dedicated to nature, landscapes, and territories, the CDNPS. The members of this independent entity are from state services, territorial collectivities, local NGOs specialized on landscapes and environment, landscapers, landscape architects and academics.

Finally, our results converge on local scale leadership on representing current environmental stakes. Some of these issues are more visible due to the regulatory "lamp" effect (protected species and areas). But many remain hidden or specific to the local marine ecosystem (laminar, avifauna, Grand Site, remarkable landscapes).

DISCUSSION

The goal of this research was to identify key social-ecological drivers that influence the sociopolitical acceptability of a floating OWF project in France. Based on an ethnography of the decision-making process related to the validation of the EIA, the study summarized the nested social-ecological variables to consider and highlight the most relevant social-ecological networks driving this decision-making process, regarding the way actors value the local marine ecosystem. Two points of discussion can be raised from our results: a discussion regarding how the information obtained from network perspective could be implemented or used to inform management and a discussion on the framing of the administrative and political process of the EIA validation.

From science to permitting: using the network perspective to inform decision-making and management

The network perspective provides management with a clear operational links between humans and natural issues. This helps to efficiently guide decision-making towards sustainability [START_REF] Janssen | A network perspective on the resilience of social-ecological systems[END_REF][START_REF] Bretagnolle | Action-orientated research and framework: insights from the French long-term socialecological research network[END_REF] and beyond the existing approaches on identification and hierarchization of barriers to OW [START_REF] Dhingra | A fuzzy analytic hierarchy process-based analysis for prioritization of barriers to offshore wind energy[END_REF][START_REF] Fofack-Garcia | Legal and Political Barriers and Enablers to the Deployment of Marine Renewable Energy[END_REF]. Our results highlight a map of synergies and trade-offs between stakeholders and with the environment. Coupling ENA, SNA and ANT frameworks was a challenge for interdisciplinarity in building an integrative framework for an advanced natural and social sciences interface to support sustainable management [START_REF] Mazé | An interdisciplinary, multi-site ethnography of Environmental Impact Assessment in the coastal zone[END_REF]. Since large-scale commercial floating OWFs are already planned in France and in the Bay of Biscay, the network perspective provides a long-term approach of SES to support integrate and sustainable OW energies policies. The analysis showed how ecological variables sometimes carry a strong social-political content [START_REF] Akrich | Comment décrire les objets techniques ? Techniques & Culture[END_REF][START_REF] Olsson | Sustainability transformations: a resilience perspective[END_REF], orienting the decision-making about their management. Instead of being strictly anthropogenic or ecological (Binder et al., 2011), the network perspective fully operationalizes the hybridization of networks, variables and sub-systems of the marine SES [START_REF] Callon | Some elements of a sociology of translation: domestication of the scallops and the fishermen of St Brieux Bay, in: Law J. Power, Action and Belief[END_REF][START_REF] Latour | On actor-network theory: A few clarifications[END_REF]. It contributes to strengthening the capacity of the decision-making to deal with the wide range of current knowledge on SES and their complexity.

The analysis of interactions and power positions between variables contributes to policy learning of transformations of an offshore environment for wind technology [START_REF] Mazé | The concept of transformation towards sustainability: from science to public[END_REF]. It is also a political learning of local strategies within an institutional framework designed at the national level to influence the local implementation of national policies (Lascoumes, 2012).

Public action cannot be reduced to conflicts and institutional struggles. Technological objects (floating OWF) and their cognitive frameworks play an important role in underlying this public action infrastructure, its schemes and mechanisms, more or less transformed and stable (Akrich, 1978;[START_REF] Latour | La science en action. Introduction à la sociologie des sciences[END_REF][START_REF] Latour | La science en action. Introduction à la sociologie des sciences[END_REF]). By relying on the analysis of sociotechnical networks (SNA-ANT) coupled with the ecological network analysis (ENA), the network perspective shows how this public action is shaped, which (environmental) issues it problematizes and how, and finally the ways in which responses to these problems are constructed. The analysis of power relations in institutional arrangements [START_REF] Ostrom | Governing the Commons. The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action[END_REF] clarifies the understanding of the informal political weight of stakeholders providing the environmental expertise (Sareen, 2021). Further analysis using the network perspective could investigate the reciprocal dependency relation in a comparative approach between marine SES facing OWF deployment. This would feed an observatory of socio-ecological transition dynamics to guide governance.

Several feedbacks on the implementation of offshore wind farms in Northern Europe show the evolution of pre-post construction perceptions and policy implications towards offshore wind farms (Bingaman, et al, 2022;[START_REF] Penneman | The evolution of the pre-and post-construction public opinions toward offshore wind energy on the Belgian coast[END_REF][START_REF] Vasconcelos (de) R | Environmental licensing for offshore wind farms: Guidelines and policy implications for new markets[END_REF]. Exploring the shift over time of decision-makers values and institutional practices [START_REF] Spijkerboer | Unravelling institutional work patterns: Planning offshore wind farms in contested space[END_REF] could complement the analysis on the evolution of social-ecological system dynamics.

An application of this temporal perspective could also inform the socio-ecological determinants of OW governance within the long-term perspective of their life cycle. The consenting instances from licensing and construction phases are replaced by instances of regulation during operational phase. Actors' strategies and the way of valuing ecosystems evolve as well. If the familiarization [START_REF] Penneman | The evolution of the pre-and post-construction public opinions toward offshore wind energy on the Belgian coast[END_REF] and the multiplication of cases of co-use of maritime space (Schupp et al, 2022;Steins et al, 2021) seem to be major factors of de-risking of consenting procedures for OW, the call to anticipate blockages at the scale of maritime spatial planning is more and more emphasized ((de) Vasconcelos et al, 2022).

The network perspective to address the framing of decision-making processes

If the issue of environmental and socio-economic impacts is one of the main factors of opposition for OWF, these oppositions can also be crystallized on the procedure and its framing (Nadai and Labussière, 2014[START_REF] Flanquart | Nous sommes tous des nimbystes : plaidoyer pour l'utilisation de la notion d'acceptabilité sociale[END_REF]. In the context of the implementation of floating OWF, the issue of environmental impacts is addressed by a standardized process in which stakeholders are administratively selected, as well as the nature, form, or the legal scope of their opinions. All stakeholders are also subject to the temporality of public action as trade-offs mechanisms must occur within a time frame punctuated by the State. The State decides on the framing, from the launch of the consultation on the EIA to the end of interactions with the decree of authorization. This State is thus omnipresent in those processes insofar as it not only decides on the management rules, but also intervenes through its decentralized services. The issue of time frame in our case study also illustrates the tension between the long term sustainable energy transition and a short term subject to the need of making investments and projects concrete in the temporalities of public energy action [START_REF] Labussière | Les temporalités entremêlées des processus de transition énergétique[END_REF].

Two observations may arise in relation to the framing of the EIA validation process where all opinions do not have the same legal force. Opinions of the navy representatives are mandatory while environmental experts' opinions are merely consultative. This may raise the question of why, in an application for environmental permit, national security issues take priority over environmental issues (Deldrève, 2020, Bödin and[START_REF] Bödin | Social networks and natural resource management, Uncovering the social fabric of environmental governance[END_REF]? One can also question the relevance of including the fisheries sector in this environmental process insofar as they represent a vision in terms of the availability of marine ecosystem services (spaces and species) and not in terms of ecological conservation per se. While the issue of trade-offs between the main maritime socio-economic activities is also addressed, the exclusion of other socio-economic sectors from this process brings to the forefront a criticism of conservation policies that are often considered elitist [START_REF] Deldrève | La fabrique des inégalités environnementales en France. Approches sociologiques qualitatives[END_REF]Larrère et al., 2009) and that would be more efficient if more equitable (Schrekenberg et al., 2016).

CONCLUSION

The paper intended to highlight main factors orienting the decision-making process around the implantation of one of the first floating OWF project in France. The network perspective in this study proceeded from the need of an integrated approach for understanding socialecological reciprocal interactions that structure the local marine SES and to inform decisionmaking towards a sustainable energy transition. We have therefore focused our attention on the ethnography of the EIA validation process which determines the issuance (or nonissuance) of the environmental permit. The validation of the EIA takes place in parallel with the public consultation, and in which some of the stakeholders in the decision-making process also participate. We thus observe intertwined temporalities that aim to accelerate the rhythm of project sitting. As a result, the ways of qualifying the environment and impacts are entangled and are supposed to converge in the Prefect final decision (permit). One of the most absent or less visible actors in this process are probably the engineering firms who carry out the EIA under the supervision of the project developers and remain in the 'back office' of the whole administrative process.

However, their primary role and scientific legitimacy in the production of impact assessment is sometimes questioned.

2. 1 .

 1 Study Case: the floating OWF pilot project of Groix & Belle-Île In the last ten years, French policies have tackled climate change by establishing a national time frame to foster the development of renewable energies in the national energy mix. In particular, OW has become central to this political strategy. Within the national scheme, Brittany Region has partly oriented its territorial development toward OW energy. With the technical support of recent innovations (floating wind turbines (Rogier 2019), wind generators and float efficiency), the financial and political support of the government, Brittany Region's strategy of development emerged with a representation of the marine space as a future "Sealicon valley" of the OW industrial sector (CESER Brittany Region 2017). Brittany Region will host the first OWF pilot project (Fig. 2) in the French Atlantic façade, Bay of Biscay, planned for implementation in 2023. The pilot project will involve three turbines of 9,5 megawatts each on an OWF area of about 14 km². The environmental impact assessment covers the OWF area, a remote zone of the OWF area (the surrounding ecosystem) and the electrical connection zone (the land-sea continuum). But potential impacts are not limited to the ecological system. Local marine ecosystem and several human activities may potentially be affected (fisheries, maritime transport, recreational activities, and tourism).

  <Figure 2#>: The Groix & Belle-Île pilot offshore wind farm project. The rectangle represents the offshore wind farm area with the three offshore wind turbines located off the two islands of Groix in the North and Belle-Île in the South. The electrical connection is illustrated by the dark blue line. © Eolfi-Shell: https://eoliennes-groix-belleile.com/ This pilot OWF is the result of a call for tenders launched by the French government in 2015. The consortium selected in 2016 to develop the park is led by the company Eolfi-Shell. RTE (Réseau de Transport Electrique), the public electrical transmission operator ensures the electrical connection of the park.

1

  <Figure 3#> Identification of 111 nested variables in the Groix & Belle-Île Social-Ecological System.

  <Figure 4#> Crafting the Groix & Belle-Île Social-Ecological System model using the network perspective. This is illustrated through connections between the nodes "actors" (dark nodes) and "ecological variables" (green nodes) in a framework coupling SNA and ENA networks for analyzing SES in OWF context.

  The results show the reception by decision-makers and investigated how they perceived socio-technical and ecological transformations towards the sustainability of marine ecosystem. Our results then unravel 101 nested social-ecological variables involved in the local marine SES and the key social-ecological networks that influence the management decision. We have analyzed the power positions within the network, describing actors' mechanisms over the reconfiguration of the floating OWF technical characteristics. The results show highly centralized networks in which the OFB, Ae and DREAL play a leading role in identifying the most critical environmental receptors for decision making. The results also conclude on the functioning of an SES that value most the protection of ecological groups and clusters over individual species.

Finally, from science

  to permitting, this research contributes to better link basic research to final decision making. The results at the interface of natural and social sciences contributes to addressing an operational challenge both for scientific research and decision making, namely, treating equally social and ecological variables in a SES. It then offers a more detailed understanding of the social-ecological barriers in terms of the background (impacts) and the design (framing) of political permitting process. The study unravels tensions, strategies and trade-offs in a political process that French managers should anticipate to rollout floating OWF. A research perspective would be to analyze the shifts decision-makers' positions on valuing environment, in a global European context of technological upscaling, from pilot to large-scale, and from bottom fixed to floating wind farms. Although the knowledge of impacts is increasingly mature, the gigantic development of OW turbines in Europe is paving the way to new strategic issues such as cumulative impacts. This highlights the relevance of

  Materials for the study. The table displays the number (37) of official opinions collected during the

	Actor's profile	Official opinions	Interviews conducted
		collected
	Civil/military navigation/navy	6	-
	State services	8	-
	State technical operators	3	2
	Local authorities	13	2
	Socio-economic groups and Unions	3	3
	Public independent entities	3	1
	Academic research	1 (Ifremer)	4
	OWF industries	0	2
	Total	37	14
	<Table 2#>

administrative process and the number (

14

) of interviews that we conducted with actors.

FUNDING

This work was part of the project APPEAL (Socio-ecosystemic approach to the impact of floating wind farms) which benefited from France Energies Marines and State financing managed by the National Research Agency under the Investments for the Future program bearing the reference ANR-10-IED-0006-25.

LITERATURE CITED

exploring the implications for environmental governance of pushing the frontiers for future OW expansion. The challenge would be to investigate by hypothesis, if environmental expertise achieved on bottom fixed OWF projects allow (or not) for less controversial deployment for floating OW, from the point of view of both environmental impacts and marine co-uses.

ABSTRACT

In the early 2010s, the French government officially launched its energy transition strategy dedicated to offshore renewable energy. The government launched, since 2011, several calls for tender for the construction of commercial fixed offshore wind farms in the English Channel and the Atlantic façade. In parallel, in the mid-2010s, the French State showed an interest in floating wind energy, with the planning of four pilot farms in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean façade. If the offshore wind energy is growing in Europe, floating offshore wind energy deployment is currently at an early stage. Floating offshore wind energy represents a major technological breakthrough, allowing the exploration of offshore energy resources that were yet out of reach, but which are recognized as more abundant. In addition to strengthening French strategic positioning among the pioneer countries in Europe for the development of an increasingly mature technology, floating wind turbines present other assets: diversifying the French offshore renewable energy mix, improving an offshore sector that is, apparently, less controversial or disrupted than its bottom-fixed counterpart (in terms of cohabitation with other maritime uses and preservation of marine ecosystems). To better understand the socio-political impediments to the implementation of floating wind farms, we conducted a study of the local governance process around the implementation of one of the first floating offshore wind farms in France, in the Bay of Biscay. This study focuses on the analysis of perceptions of floating OWF impacts by decision-makers involved in the validation process of the Environmental Impact Assessment: how do these decision-makers perceive, value and relate to the marine ecosystem in presence of a floating OWF? How do ecological factors shape decision making, and what ecological factors are involved? The paper applies a network perspective in the analysis the local marine social-ecological system (SES) to: identify nested social-ecological variables and key social-ecological networks influencing the licensing process in the floating OWF sector in France, 2) analyzing the power positions and the functioning of interactions through an ethnographic of a politicaladministrative process, and questioning in a pragmatic way the environmental governance of energy transition towards sustainability. KEY WORDS social-ecological systems, network perspective, floating offshore wind farm, Environmental Impacts Assessment (EIA), socio-political acceptability, France. HIGHLIGHTS  A network perspective combining three distinct theorical approaches was used to enhance the analysis of intertwined interactions between social and ecological systems in a marine social-ecological system (SES).

 The study conducted an ethnography of the political-administrative process of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) validation during the licensing process.