L’affirmation des territoires ruraux par le management de projet : préparer le retour plutôt que la revanche. Introduction au numéro spécial Management des territoires ruraux

Rural management is an integral part of the territorial development paradigms, moreover management and rurality are influencing reciprocally during the development processes. This introduction examines how the project management may influence rurality, and how the managerial practices may be challenged by rurality. Starting form a bibliometric approach to identify the main lines that organize the rural management field, this article also recalls how the various managerial approaches are related to the various developmental paradigms. Today, as organizers of a complex governance, territorial managers must reinforce their knowledge of the management tools and technics, notably the brand, to organize stakeholders and enhance the potential of rural areas. To reach this goal, a favorable institutional support is required, based on efficient frameworks. The LEADER and TZCLD programs, mentioned in this special issue, aim the mobilization of the endogenous capital as a condition for successful projects. The use of these mechanisms is nevertheless uneven and leads to contrasting regional economic effects. This calls into question the strategies that exclusively give local responses to global problems. More than a set of techniques, rural management has also an important symbolic dimension. It is a space of values in phase with contemporary aspirations, particularly environmental ones. If it could symbolically engage in a form of revenge, rural management must recognize and maintain the multiple interactions with the urban world. These interactions are moreover part of the elements on which rural management is based.