Espaces ruraux et politique des pôles: les Pôles d’Excellence Rurale en France

We analyze how choice of development strategy (cluster policy) in rural areas depends on local spatial and socioeconomic characteristics. We study cluster policy (Les Poles d’Excellence Rurale) in rural France. We use statistical analysis (multinomial logit) to study how the choice of theme of development in 379 local projects (from among tourism, bio- ‐resources, population- based services, technology) is affected by three main categories of characteristics (local resources availability, market accessibility and territorial organization) of rural areas. We find significant relations between area characteristics and theme of development that differ among themes. The main development factors of rural areas rest on the potential of local resources, particularly in tourism and bioresources. But these relations are neither unequivocal nor systematic; they have to take into account the development pattern of rural areas and particulate the different levels at which regional growth strategy is determined.