New dwellers, news jobs

Abstract

Sensitive" areas are defined, within the scope of this paper, as rural areas with low density population which have experienced or are experiencing negative population developments. The population deficiency for them constitutes one of the main handicaps to the (presumed) research for a new development, especially through the difficulty to find local human resources to take care for it. However, it seems that we are now witnessing, even in low-density rural areas, a population development which is not uniformly negative, with interesting migration phenomena : this point is the subject of a first exposition. The economic development is necessary to keep the local population, or even to attract new residents, and at the same time, this latter one can be stimulated through the reception of new populations. The point of view adopted in this paper is the one of development at the service of local life, in favouring the questions of relation between activities, jobs and demography, of the sharing-out and distribution of activities within sensitive areas. After a recalling of agricultural and industrial activity sectors, the reception functions of rural territories are initially examined as a whole, in considering all the forms of population reception having resources from external origin (pensioners, commuting migrants, tourists, ...), then in developing the example of scattered rural tourism. Finally, in relying on these analyses, contribution ways for Research to public action are set in prospects.