Contenu du sommaire : Agricultures et dynamique des villes alpines

At a time when the rural world is undergoing considerable peri-urbanisation, it is tempting to consider the changes affecting peri-urban areas as simply part of the process of urban expansion. Based on an analysis of the place and functions of agriculture in the planning and development projects of the alpine corridor in the French northern alps, this article proposes an alternative way of looking at the question. We use examples to demonstrate that the renewal of agricultural functions can only be properly understood if we take into account a combination of processes associating the control of spreading urbanization, where agriculture is given the role of containing and qualifying the town, and local development dynamics, in which agricultural and non-agricultural actors attempt to direct agriculture in relation to different expectations : economic development, environmental and landscape management, identity and cultural aspects, and so on. Rural and peri-urban areas are not simply a periphery that is determined and structured by the town. To understand how these areas are evolving, it is important to examine the innovative capacity and proactive role of the actors involved.

In the Alpine corridor, an area characterised by strong urbanisation dynamics, alongside classical types of agriculture where extensile areas are given over to the dominant types of production, more diverse forms of agriculture are emerging or taking hold. These are based on activities that may have a linkage function, bringing into contact towns and mountain areas, urban residents and nature. The first of these agricultural types contributes above all to the legibility of the region's special characteristics (landscape, products), while the second may participate in constructing an identity based on these characteristics. It is a role that is not always expected of agriculture, one in which a certain number of farmers are already becoming involved and which may be necessary for the emergence and affirmation of the « regional alpine town ».

The place of agriculture in the alpine corridor (sillon alpin) is undergoing rapid change in both social and spatial terms. How can agriculture adapt to regional changes ? The article attempts to clarify this question from the point of view of the social representations of both the region (territoire) and agriculture of a category of people from whom we rarely hear, despite their importance ; the inhabitants. We first define their profiles, and then go on to show the nature of their concerns about the place where they live and the possibilities that these concerns open up for the new fonctions of agriculture in peri-urban areas and the alliances that the agricultural world can form with society in general.

In the Rhone plain in the Valais, Switzerland, a dynamic and productive area has been developed over the years in the context of the engineering works to control the river's course. This taming of nature has provided a basis for constructing an identity for the area's fruit and vegetable growers, an endeavour in une with a local vision of man seeking to control and leave his mark on the landscape. Consequently, these farmers are attached to their role as producers and to the technical skills that have been developed since the production of special crops began in the area one hundred years ago. Their relations with nature have oscillated between respect and desire to preserve a work tool that their ancestors strove to construct and a need to control the advance of a hostile and unruly natural environment. Today, the multiple activities that have recently developed in this restricted area are in conflict over how the land should be used. However, one of the main measures of the third Rhone correction project will be to widen the river's course. The proposed works are thus the opportunity for a general reflection on the future use of the area. The new fonctions attributed to agriculture do not correspond at all to the vision that most farmers have of their job. But finding compromises and working on the synergies between agriculture and other activities represents a major challenge, given that each activity depends so much on the others to ensure its long-term existence and at the same time the dynamism and health of the region.

The article analyses changes in the recent dynamics of AOC cheese production in Savoie, France, and examines problems related to changes in the economic and territorial context. First, through a cross-analysis of information from the Agricultural Census, examined in the context of urban development and AOC zoning, and economic data from the Réseau d'Information Agricole (agricultural information network), we show how the development of Savoyard AOC production has been positive over the last few decades. Second, we use surveys conducted among farmers to show how urban growth and the changing agricultural policy could be a threat to this favourable development, necessitating a fresh look at the AOC designation system in Savoie.