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This paper is dealing with the disciplinary history of the rural economics in France between 1955 and 1985 which mark respectively the beginning of its institutionalization and a radical turning point in its development. I analyze the conditions of the emergence and evolution of this specific form of knowledge within a public research institution emphasizing the important role of science policy in the organization of knowledge in the second half of the twentieth century. This perspective suggests a link between intellectual development and institutional configuration in the transformation of rural social sciences. Changing conceptions of the public utility of social science and recent efforts of internationalization of academic institutions not only introduce new institutional practices, but lead to the complete reconfiguration of rural disciplines.