« Le Morvan est-il maudit ? », analyse géographique d’un territoire hyper-rural

• Main Author: Étienne Cossart
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Université Lille 1 2021-04-01
• Series: Territoire en Mouvement
• Subjects: deep-rurality; countryside; retraction; associations; Morvan; Burgundy
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/tem/7276

The Morvan is a deep-rural territory on which studies have generally focused on the repulsive character. In line with recent reflections on deep-rural territories we try to take a more nuanced look at this territory through a geographical analysis. A spatial analysis allows us to compare the demographic and agricultural trajectories of the Morvan communes with those of the whole of the former Burgundy region. Both demographic decline and retraction of agricultural activities exhibit complex temporal patterns. To complement, an emic approach allows us to observe the emergence of singular dynamics to compensate for the decline in the supply of public services: these are hybrid systems involving local public actors with initiatives from the inhabitants, most often in an associative framework. The associative fabric is significantly denser than in the rest of the former Burgundy region. On the one hand, it is indicative of a dynamic system of actors, in contrast to the sluggish image of hyper-rural territories. On the other hand, it also reveals the disengagement of public authorities from fundamental services.