Administration, territory and population dynamics. Agricultural ecosystems as a case study

Abstract

The article highlights the existence of a relationship between administration, territory, and population dynamics: since the territory and population dynamics are strongly interwoven, the administration of territory tends to affect the size and structure of the population and the administration of population dynamics has a territorial impact. This finding suggests that public intervention cannot effectively govern one unless it integrates the consideration of the other and vice versa.

After some reflections on the meanings attributed to the concepts of “territory” and “demographic dynamics”, in order to provide a concrete example of this tripolar relationship, the work looks at the agricultural ecosystems as a case study: first, it shows that public intervention on agroecosystems (administration of territory) triggered rural depopulation (demographic impact); second, it assesses whether and how recent administrative plans to tackle rural depopulation (administration of population dynamics) have attention to the agroecosystems (territorial integration).