Agricultural trajectories (1961-1991), resulting agricultural profiles andcurrent sociodemographic profiles of rural communities in southern Quebec (Canada): A typological outline

The transformation of the rural areas in Quebec is a result of the decrease in the agricultural population, the spread of the periurban fringes, and t he appropriation of areas by seasonal residents. To what extent have these phenomena evolved according to different spaces, from one municipality to t he other? Have they made the territory more homogeneous, or have they rathe r contributed to produce new spatial patterns? What are the dominant traits of the rural communities' sociodemographic profiles that are attributed to these trajectories? Considerable work remains to be done in order to chara cterize the evolving trajectories, induced by these phenomena, and the resu lting spatial patterns. Based on the agricultural and sociodemographic indi cators available in Canadian censuses, and the possibilities offered by the multivaried analyses; the present research aims to identify typological ou tlines apt to report on: (1) evolving agricultural trajectories (1961-1991) ; (2) resulting agricultural profiles; and (3) current sociodemographic pro files. Two observations result from these outlines. First, resulting from t he two main agricultural trajectories observed (intensification-regression) , the five following agricultural profiles were noticed for 1991: vegetable crop intensive farming, cereal crop intensive farming, moderately intensiv e farming, extensive cattle farming, and marginalised farming. Second, on t he sociodemographic level, the identification of seven rural municipality g roups (predominantly agricultural, agricultural in transition, marginalised agricultural, periurban, small mutating industrial centre, traditional and high-class rural amenity municipalities) accounts for the diversity of soc ial recomposition shapes. This paper attempts to contribute to the understa nding of spatial and demographic dynamics of contemporary rural communities . (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.