Vivre dans les espaces ruraux de faible densité de population : pratiques et représentations des jeunes dans le Périgord Vert (France) et le Rural Galway (Irlande)

摘要

In this research, we adopt an approach of the remote areas which differs from most of theprevious studies, in the fact that we take low population densities as a datum. We focus onproblems little invested by geographers until now, by investigating the meaning of living inremote areas. The constant doubts about the future of these remote areas led us to take aninterest in a group of actors on which a part of the future rests : young people from 15 to 25years of age. Thus, this research aims at understanding how young people deal with lowpopulation density. It is a question of penetrating into the logics of usage and appropriation ofthese specific areas and of explaining its models of organization. More precisely, it isimportant to understand how remote areas are lived, inhabited, put in acts, invested,perceived, transformed… to analyze the functioning of this particular spatial organization. Ina more general way, our research aims at investigating how remote areas are represented andreinvented today. This analysis also tries to be a contribution to a better knowledge of thevariety of rural areas in Europe. This work leans on a qualitative methodology based on semidirectiveinterviews and on participating observation. Besides, our analysis proceeds bycomparison between France and Ireland because the place of rural areas in both French andIrish imagination establishes a common feature between these two countries.