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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., Peyrache-Gadeau Véronique, Fleury Philippe. Agriculture as an agent in building local identities : an alternative approach to urbanization of rural areas as exemplified in the Alpine corridor. In: Revue de géographie alpine, tome 93, n°4, 2005. Agricultures et dynamique des villes alpines, sous la direction de Claude Janin et Philippe Fleury. pp. 21-31.

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., Guisepelli Emmanuel. Agriculture in peri-urban areas of the alpine corridor : an image of nature for inhabitants ?. In: Revue de géographie alpine, tome 93, n°4, 2005. Agricultures et dynamique des villes alpines, sous la direction de Claude Janin et Philippe Fleury. pp. 71-82.