terroir

Articles

• Rurality
  14 December 2013, by L. R.

  As a set of collective representations of the characteristics that make up a form of identity and functioning specific to rural areas, rurality belongs to the town-country dyad, with recent changes in perceptions, practices, and modes of governance in these spaces. Classically the term rurality (commoner in French than in English) refers to 1) the characteristic of being "rural", the characteristics of rural spaces; -2) "a set of values, a culture specific to the rural environment" or to (...)

• Terroir
  8 November 2013, by L. R.

  This French term has no equivalent in English. In French the word, which is related to the word territoire, and also recalls "terre" (land, soil) is variously used to refer to a portion of terrestrial space, a physical unit, a "«territory»" shaped by man, a finage, or rural district or parish specific to an agricultural community, a product or a particular social feature that is singularly rural (such as an "accent du terroir" (local accent), "produits du terroir" (local produce) etc). In (...)