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The year 2014, declared by international organizations as the Year of Family Farming, offered an opportunity for several French research teams engaged on this theme to produce a summary of their work and to reflect on their contributions to the understanding, evaluation and governance of this form of agrarian organization now regarded at times as archaic, at times as successful. The aim of this article is to position these works within the current trends of ideas on family farming. By analyzing the size, diversity and potential of family farming, these studies opportunely focus on the terms and conditions of its effective integration in contemporary societies. As a result, they contribute to inform public policies and private decisions. More generally, these studies offer new perspectives for the analysis of the agricultural production system.