Rural Gentrification in France Questioning Socio-Environmental Inequalities in Rural Areas

As part of the Social Sciences Seminar, Frédéric Richard and Greta Tommasi will present their book Rural Gentrification in France, forthcoming with the Presses Universitaires de Rennes (2025). Abstract: The revival of many French rural areas is largely driven by the settlement of individuals and households from diverse social backgrounds. These newcomers contribute to profound social, functional, and landscape transformations of rural territories. Many of them belong to the middle and upper classes, are highly educated, and generally possess economic, social, and cultural capital that is often greater than that of previously established populations, whom they tend to progressively replace in locally variable proportions. Often interpreted as amenity-led migration, these dynamics are sometimes praised by public institutions for their contribution to the revitalization of rural areas. Yet they also raise significant concerns. It is now crucial for researchers, elected officials, and practitioners to address the issues they generate in terms of social and political inequalities, power relations—sometimes forms of domination—and the processes of displacement and marginalization affecting the most disadvantaged populations, for whom access to land and housing has in some cases become impossible. Rural gentrification provides a conceptual framework that makes it possible to analyze these trajectories from a clearly critical perspective. Bringing together epistemological, theoretical, and empirical contributions, the book aims to present different facets of a key concept for understanding inequalities within French rural areas.