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The transformation of family-based agricultural structures questions the academic and policy environments across the history of agricultural representations in the past century. The ways of seeing and representing the different forms of agriculture relate to this transformation. Family farming has acquired an international legitimacy, but it is now questioned by the changes occurring in agriculture in the developed as well as in the developing and emerging countries. The Sustainable Rural Livelihoods (SRL) framework allows a global comprehension of the agricultural entity as a constituent of an activity system that has become multi-sectoral and multisituational, relating to market and non-market regulations. The relative significance and the nature of the mobilized types of capital allow us to schematically present three types of family agriculture organizations in Brazil, France, and Mali. Finally, a more generic characterization outlined by our conceptual model is proposed, raising new methodological issues.