Industrie et rurbanisation : aspects sociologiques

One must distinguish between the often conflicting motivations of those concerned by industry's invasion of rural areas. The very varied reactions to industry are better understood if one considers the notion of local industrial culture, illustrated here by the presentation of five actual cases. The successive discrepancies in the behaviour and mobility of workers and the plans of the entrepreneurs and the planners are described. The limits of the factory-in-the-fields model are made clear in an analysis of the relationship between the rural protagonists — natives or of town origin — and the town which leads to rurbawzation. The effect of the exhaustion of the supply of farm labour is pointed out, both in the increase in concentrated rurbanization and in the antagonisms between agricultural interests and rural industrial development.