33 essays take various archaeological approaches to the study of arts and crafts in the medieval village, from small-scale domestic production, to what might more reasonably be termed industries. The papers range all over Europe in geographical scope, with a focus perhaps more on eastern Europe and Scandinavia than western Europe. Papers look at pottery, textiles, bone carving, iron smelting and charcoal burning, and more general questions of the place of the peasant-artisan in the medieval economy.

The human condition in rural, provincial locations is once again gaining status as a subject of European ‘high fiction’, after several decades in which it was dismissed on aesthetic and ideological grounds. This volume is one of the first attempts to investigate perspectives on local cultures, values and languages both systematically and in a European context. It does so by examining the works of a variety of authors, including Hugo Claus, Llamazares, Bergounioux and Millet, Buffalino and Consolo, and also several Soviet authors, who paint a grim picture of a collectivized – and thus ossified – rurality. How do these themes relate to the ongoing trend of globalization? How do these works, which are often experimental, connect – in their form, topics, language and ideological subtext – to the traditional rural or regional genres? Far from naively celebrating a lost Eden, most of these ‘new Georgics’ reflect critically on the tensions in contemporary, peripheral, rural or regional cultures, to the point of parodying the traditional topoi and genres. This book is of interest to those wishing to reflect on the dynamics and conflicts in contemporary European rural culture.

En novembre 2014, un colloque pluridisciplinaire portant sur le monde rural, ses mutations et ses enjeux était organisé à Besançon par le laboratoire C3S. Les communications retenues dans le cadre de cette publication ont été regroupées en trois grandes parties. La première propose des éléments de cadrage et de problématisation susceptibles d'éclairer les phénomènes de pauvreté et d'exclusion, les fractures ou les inégalités territoriales mais aussi les dynamiques locales de développement...