Divergent socio-economic trajectories in the rural areas of the new German Länder

International audienceFor just over fifteen years now, the rural areas of the new German Länder have followed a path of socioeconomic transformation marked out by the transfer of a planning model. Based on Western policy standards for local development, this model assumes that the rural economy will adapt by diversifying its activities, using new resources and promoting bottom-up initiatives. Privatisation of the economy and new public policies have introduced a selective process of territorial integration that is radically altering the structure of rural areas according to socioeconomic trajectories differentiated at regional level