Visions étrangères

Foreign points of view - We asked four foreign colleagues (M. de Benedictis, F. Heidhues, W. Moyer et M. Tracy) to give us their points of view on agricultural economics in France (more precisely on « économie rurale » as it is called in France), seen both as a discipline and as a profession. What is striking is how much these points of view, which are necessarily partial and different, in fact reach very similar conclusions. They stress the importance of pluridisciplinary approaches which in the past contributed to a good grasp of social and rural dimensions. This French specificity is much less clear today than in the past, because of the current predominance of neo-classical approaches. The main limitations emphasized by our neighbors are our reluctance to engage in normative analyses of agricultural policies and the weakness of the linkages between research and teaching. These ring two warning bells which we must reflect upon.