Les nouveaux liens sociaux au territoire

Abstract

The growing of concerns about the effects of agricultural activities on the quality of environment questions the trend towards social and spatial specialisation established by the process of agricultural modernisation. This process aimed at the maximisation of food production. It was supported by important territorial planning and infrastructures (irrigation systems, land reclamation, land consolidation) and by laws which provided farmers with pre-eminent rights of access to rural space to the detriment of other potential users. In the scientific and technical fields, agronomy and rural economy played a dominant part in establishing this spatial and social specialisation. Environmental concerns question both the monofunctionality of territorial use and the priority of farmers' access rights. The multifunctionality of territories goes with the institutionalisation of new relation systems between farmers and other rural space stakeholders. In these circumstances, agronomy has to come to terms with other scientific disciplines, such as ecology, in the field of technical recommendations. This questioning of productive spatial and social specialisation increasingly provides rural territories with the status of public goods. But market forces can also lead to new environmental specialisation and land privatisation. © NSS-Dialogues, EDP Sciences 2004.