The Permanent Conference and the Study of the Rural Landscape

It is the accomplishment of Xavier de Planhol, at the age of 30 years old, to have organised the first European multidisciplinary scholarly meeting in the field of géographie et histoire agraires. It happened in 1957, perhaps not incidentally the time of the formation of the European Communities (Treaty of Rome). He also later actively promoted the development towards a “Permanent Conference”. As an informal founding father — from 1971, he was elected secretary-general of the Conference — he participated in 10 consecutive meetings, at eight of them with papers.