Agricultural specialization in European rural history: resources, markets and spaces (18th-20th centuries)

The article analyzes the notion of agricultural specialization looking at the debates on technical innovations and socio-economic development in the countryside between the 18th and the 20th century. It is based on the research literature that has renewed European rural history during the past decades. Three different perspectives are proposed to explore how specialized crops and activities transformed farming and regional organization. Firstly, the pioneering historical work on alternative agricultures by Joan Thirsk serves to compare various definitions and approaches to specialization from the production side. Secondly, the article questions how changes in commercial networks, supply chain and industrial activities can shape the spatial footprint of the specialized rural systems. Thirdly, these systems become the fieldwork for observing the contemporary dynamics of agricultural intensification, technical rationalization, and socio-economic selection.