Du terroir au pays et à la région : les espaces sociaux en Roannais à l'époque préindustrielle (milieu du XVIIe siècle-fin du XVIIIe siècle) : essai d'histoire géographique

From farmed land to area and region. Social spaces in the roannais in the pre-industrial era (mid seventeenth century - end of eighteenth century) geographical history essay

• Auteur / Autrice : Serge Dontenwill
• Direction : Jean-Pierre Gutton
• Type : Thèse de doctorat
• Discipline(s) : Histoire
• Date : Soutenance en 1996
• Etablissement(s) : Lyon 2

Résumé

Etudier l'espace social consiste a s'attacher a la vie materielle et a l'organisation d'un groupe humain en rapport avec les territoires qui constituent le support de son existence. Une telle demarche suppose d'abord l'analyse du peuplement et des formes d'occupation du territoire habite et surtout la mise en evidence des relations qui animent cet espace et lui donnent un contenu social. Dans cette perspective, ce travail veut montrer comment les espaces se hierarchisent a l'epoque preindustrielle. A la base se trouvent les cellules elementaires, les entites famille exploitation. Ces cellules se groupent en communautes qui elles-memes sont integrees dans des reseaux de relations, autour des bourgs et des villes, a differentes echelles, du petit canton jusqu'au pays et a la region. Le roannais, aux dix-septieme et dix-huitieme siecles, situe au contact entre france du nord et france du midi, fournit un bon exemple de pays, deja organise autour d'un pole central, roanne, une ville moyenne. Des la fin de l'ere preindustrielle, la villecentre anime des structures regionales superposees a une zone geographiquement heterogene, et construit ainsi un ''espace vecu''.

The study of social spaces consists in examining the material life and the organisation of a human group with regard to the areas that constitute the means of existence of the said group. Such a step implies, firts of all, the analysis of the peopling and the forms of occupation of the area which is inhabited, and above all, highlighting the relations which give both life and social content to his space. With this perspective in mind, this esay wiches to demonstrate how, at the pre-industrial era, spaces formed themselves into a hierarchy. Elementary units lay at the base of the hierarchical organisation with family entities their cultivated lands. These units grouped together into communities which, in turn, were integrated into a network relationships around large villages and towns at different levels, ranging from the small district to the larger one and the region. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the roannais, situated where the france of the north meets the south, provides a good example of an ''area'' which was alraedy organised around a central point, roanne, a medium-sized town. As early as the end of the pre-industrial era, the town, acting as a centre, gave life to regional structures which were superimposed on a varied geographical zone, and in his way, created a ''lived-in space''.