77

Why in France after May 68 did thousands of young city dwellers abandon everything to live in communities in the countryside, plough fields or breed goats and become Neo-Rurals? How did they perceive the legitimism of such an approach which, depending on the case, was more or less ephemeral? And what consequences did it have on their subsequent (career) paths? From these three questions, the author explores the return to nature, a particular kind of utopia in movement after 1968. Based on a survey in the Pyrénées ariégeoises (2008-2015), the article develops, via the use of tools issued mainly from interactionist sociology, a new perspective of research around the establishment, failure or self-education in life in communities and questions the current incidence of this experience in the careers of its protagonists.