In the early 1990s, after a period of questioning, French rural geography opened up to the residential function of peri-urban areas (Bonerandi and Deslondes, 2008) and to agri-food and environmental issues in the context of globalisation (Cornu, 2018). In this paradigmatic shift (multifunctionality and rural renaissance), what is the weight of the thematic and professional renewal of a community that is now marginal in the University (Cornu, 2018)? Is rural geography being reinvested in other research bodies, and using what approaches, in favour of new geographies of food, for example? Recognised as a stable and dynamic community through its commission on the French National Geography Committee, created in 1966, how are its composition and practices being transformed by scientific developments? We will answer these questions by analysing changes in the programming of an old seminar (the thirty-year old Pôle Rural de Caen - Madeline, 2023) and the more recent “Nouvelles Ruralités” (since 2016 in Nanterre). A comparative analysis of changes in the job profiles of lecturer-researchers at the University and researchers at the CNRS and INRAE, together with the scientific positions of those recruited, will shed light on the current dynamics from an institutional point of view. Analysis of the 134 ruralist papers presented at the last IGU congress (Paris 2022) and the 1,128 ruralist theses defended in geography or planning in France since 1990 helps to refine/situate the portrait of a French rural geography in full turmoil!

In the early 1990s, after a period of questioning, French rural geography opened up to the residential function of peri-urban areas (Bonerandi and Deslondes, 2008) and to agri-food and environmental issues in the context of globalisation (Cornu, 2018). In this paradigmatic shift (multifunctionality and rural renaissance), what is the weight of the thematic and professional renewal of a community that is now marginal in the University (Cornu, 2018)? Is rural geography being reinvested in other research bodies, and using what approaches, in favour of new geographies of food, for example? Recognised as a stable and dynamic community through its commission on the French National Geography Committee, created in 1966, how are its composition and practices being transformed by scientific developments? We will answer these questions by analysing changes in the programming of an old seminar (the thirty-year old Pôle Rural de Caen - Madeline, 2023) and the more recent “Nouvelles Ruralités” (since 2016 in Nanterre). A comparative analysis of changes in the job profiles of lecturer-researchers at the University and researchers at the CNRS and INRAE, together with the scientific positions of those recruited, will shed light on the current dynamics from an institutional point of view. Analysis of the 134 ruralist papers presented at the last IGU congress (Paris 2022) and the 1,128 ruralist theses defended in geography or planning in France since 1990 helps to refine/situate the portrait of a French rural geography in full turmoil!