Towards a typology of Europe’s rural areas: advances from the second RURALITIC workshop

How can we harmonise advances in theoretical discussions on space and social structure with empirical advances based on statistical data to build a typology of Europe’s rural areas? That was the question that participants at the second RURALITIC workshop, which took place in Paris on 29-30 September 2025, aimed to address.

Entitled ‘Towards a typology of European rural areas: theoretical and methodological issues’, the workshop was intended to help develop a conceptual framework for the definition of rural spaces, the social space-physical space dichotomy and the various representations of the European countryside. To this end, it presented current thinking on the notions of ‘rural’, ‘social space’, ‘physical space’, ‘symbolic space’ and ‘representations of rural spaces’.

Partners were encouraged to explore how they might apply these approaches and test these notions empirically, using data from both the European and French contexts, to construct a cartographic and social typology of Europe’s rural areas.

The event followed on from the first RURALITIC workshop, which was held in Porto, Portugal in June 2025 and which examined whether perceptions about the countryside are shaped by politics to a greater extent than by lived experience.

Varying approaches

Taking place at the headquarters of the French National Institute of Demographic Studies at the Campus Condorcet (INED), the workshop was attended by 25 people face-to-face, with a further 10-15 following online. Participants included both representatives of RURALITIC partner organisations and researchers involved in OPOSOM – a French project with similar aims to RURALITIC but with a focus on the national rather than the pan-European level funded by the French National Research Agency.

After welcoming participants, RURALITIC coordinator, Gilles Laferté of the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment outlined moves towards the definition of rural areas based on a functionalist approach to space that justifies the construction of typologies.

Subsequent presentations from Virgilio Borgès Pereira of the University of Porto and Eleonora Elguezabal of Paris Dauphine University described the current state of the art as regards the implementation of a social space approach to the investigation of rural Europe and provided an analysis of spatial classifications, as well as questioned the categories of language used to describe the rural in Spanish (with significant variation across Spanish-speaking countries), and ideally proposes a comparative programme in other European languages, respectively. To round off the first day, Edouard Lynch of Lumière University Lyon 2 looked at how images, rather than data, affect perceptions of rural spaces.

New typologies

Day two began with a presentation by the RURALITIC team from Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands, which offered a critical review of European rural typologies from a socio-relational standpoint. In their second presentation, the team from Delft examined how to move towards a more just and relational rural typology.

In between the two presentations from the TU Delft representatives, the OPOSOM team gave an overview of work done under that project to formulate methodological principles and carry out empirical investigations with a view to elaborating a sociological typology of French districts and municipalities.

Following discussions in different teams, the workshop concluded by setting out the upcoming activities within RURALITIC, particularly the preparation of the next workshop in Porto, scheduled for March 2026, and data collection work.

Objectives achieved

The aims of the workshop seem to have been achieved in full, with the event contributing to the further development of a conceptual approach to defining rural areas based on a functional vision and a division between social spaces (those relating to individuals and households) and physical spaces (those relating to territories).

On the statistical side, three approaches have been proposed: one that is more exploratory and makes it possible to see the importance of hitherto neglected variables, and two others – at French and European levels – that are more operational and use a physical space-social space statistical breakdown. For European-level analysis, access to fine-grained data, such as that available from Eurostat, will be essential.

Exchanges during the event will feed into RURALITIC research outputs, such as the working papers expected to be put forward in view of the March 2026 workshop. They should also contribute to the work on how rural areas are represented, which is due to start in September 2026.

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