L'économie rurale en France. Essai de synthèse de la session et de bilan

A mostly critical appraisal of the state of the field. A diversified French school has developed over the past 35 years while there was almost nothing before that period. However much of the published work lacks professionnalism. There have been efforts to build stronger theoretical foundations, particularly but not exclusively by marxist authors. This, however, often produced vague and poorly documented work. Some research is of doubtfull utility, the mark of weak programming. Judgments are often biaised by agrarianistic leanings. There is an excess of repetitive research, ignorance concerning developments of the field in foreign countries, backwardness in the use of modern quantitative methods.