Zones rurales et capacité entrepreneuriale au Portugal : pratiques, représentations, politiques

Abstract

Improving entrepreneurship is a decisive factor in the development of rural areas. This statement is particularly important for those who recognize the limitations of both the productivist and the consumerist-heritage approaches to achieve sustainable development in rural areas. This article looks at entrepreneurial capability on 2 complementary levels. Having defined a typology of Portuguese rural areas, which is used to establish current patterns of entrepreneurial initiative, it then puts forward and interprets the results of field work on the practices and representations relating to business activity as it is carried on in 2 contrasting rural areas: Bombarral/Cadaval (a rural area close to urban areas) and the Left Bank of the Guadiana river (a marginal rural area). Our results lead us to question the suitability, for less-developed rural areas, of policies based on a range of analytical frameworks which have had a significant impact on territorial studies over the last twenty years (territorialized clusters, regional innovation systems, innovative milieus, etc.). This in turn suggests a need to move the central focus, particularly in this type of rural area, onto the question of how personal, social and institutional capabilities are developed, to the processes of collective learning and to the reflexive practices of local communities.