Peri-urban farming: paradigm and paradoxes of a "peri-agriculture". Illustration in the Mediterranean region

Abstract

Peri-urban agriculture is subject to constraints, in particular those of land, imposed by the more or less near presence of cities. Treating it as a particular object rather than as a more or less modified form of the standard model is a matter of chosing which policies will be applied to it. This article has decided on approaching the adaptations due to the peri-urban context as triggering radical changes upon the systems in their functioning rationale. Two case studies, taken within the Mediterranean environment, illustrate our contention, trying to underline their sometimes paradoxical functioning. Insistence is given to the diversifying effect of the systems in this particular context as well as to the changes linked to land management.