On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the laboratory ‘Dynamiques Rurales’, an international and multidisciplinary Symposium will be held in Toulouse from 23 to 27 May 2016. This Symposium will be coupled with the 2016 Journées Rurales (Rural Days) of the French Commission of Rural Geography (French National Committee of Geography). This double event calls for contributions from the entire range of social and human sciences which deal with ruralities (geography, sociology, economics, anthropology, management, law, audiovisual studies…), reflecting the ‘Dynamiques Rurales’ own dialogue among all the disciplines represented in the laboratory. This event provides for an opportunity to develop collaboration with both historical ‘Dynamiques Rurales’ partners, especially in Latin America and Africa, and the counterparts of the French Commission of Rural Geography in various European countries (Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italia, Portugal, United-Kingdom…), as part of the European Network of Rural Geography.
The publication of “Rural renaissance” (B.Kayser, 1990) and the launching of the laboratory ‘Dynamiques Rurales’ in 1991 are almost concomitant. A quarter century later, how do we deal with the “Rural renaissance”? The aim is not so much to feed the controversy between the advocates of the rural crisis and its disappearance and those who argue for a rural renaissance and who very often adopt a localistic and activist approach. Rather it is to return to the problematical basis, to the initial project which has guided the publication: an attempt to synthetize the reflections of the 1970’s and 1980’s in order to reform the “rural” object, to give the main axes of a comprehensive model of a society-space relation. What is the present situation with regard to this project? …