This article proposes to explore the modalities of a new mode of knowledge production based on an interdisciplinary, participatory and involved approach. This approach consists in mobilizing knowledge of different natures and scopes, both from the academic world and from the vernacular experiences. It makes the survey a way of defining reality with a view to constructing common understandings and perspectives, and making it possible to orient the territory development trajectories. The transformative aim of this type of investigation is expressed in three ways: the swarming as a method of generalizing knowledge and practices rather than the replication of large-scale projects; the commitment to prefigurative perspectives based on the storytelling; the resolution of place-based problems through the production of convivial tools for their enabling and transformative potentials. This approach is embodied in a series of research-action projects conducted since 2018 by the Territorial Living Lab for the Social and Ecological Transition (LTTE) of the Dijon House of Humanities.