Those who stayed: Living in the declining countryside

With Those who stayed: Living in the declining countryside, Benoît Coquard presents  the fruit of his research carried out over the course of several years,  immersed in his native region in France, Grand-Est, a region that shares  borders with Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and Switzerland.  He seeks to understand — be it out of choice, or a lack of choice —  why people continue to live in the declining countryside.  A primary objective of this essay is to demonstrate the weakness  of a concept that Christophe Guilluy describes as “the French periphery”.  Benoît Coquard argues that there is a common dynamic in these diverse  rural areas, that can also be found in the yellow vests protest movement.  The generational gap between those who leave — i.e. those  who pursued a higher education — and those who stay, is fundamental  to understanding the dynamics of working-class communities,  their shared ideas, solidarity, and collective identity.