Contributing to territorial dynamics

Abstract

Because of the sheer extent of the geographical dimension of rural areas and the dominant role that agriculture plays there, family farming is at the heart of territorial dynamics. It involves the mobilization of territorial resources by individual or collective actors (Gumuchian and Pecqueur 2007). These resources can either be physical-abundant natural resources, favorable climatic conditions or very good market access, etc.or intangible-traditional and ancestralknow-how, political resources, cultural heritage, etc. The appropriation anduse of these resources reveal strategies of action of various stakeholders. Thus territorial dynamics can be defined as changes and translations, in a given area, of individual or collectiveactions planned and undertaken for theappropriation and use of limited resources, in specific institutional and political contexts (Piraux 2009). This chapter aims at evaluating the contribution of family farming models, as the sum of individual and collective actors, to these territorial dynamics.