Increasingly, participatory cultural policies combine, with a transformative ambition, the co-construction of knowledge with the social and cultural vitalization of the reference spaces. As an expression of a discourse that values the multiple qualities of 'civil society' in terms of its capacity for self-organization, flexibility and inventiveness, these forms of social engineering aim, in particular, to 'activate' the energies present in given social configurations, so that the latter can themselves seek out and attract the resources (competences, funding, etc.) they need. Such an approach, which is sometimes described as 'nexogenous', is notably at the heart of the governance arrangements for rural areas in Europe, participation being one of the pillars of the development programmes financed by the European Union for areas which - at least in terms of demographic trends or the dynamics of impoverishment and exclusion - display a problematic status. Attentive to the plurality of values and relationships to the territory of the inhabitants, and to their position in the local social space, participatory research then becomes the tool to imagine new social practices for these under-invested empty spaces, so that they can become the "triggers" of a revitalization of rural areas, contributing to counter the demographic decline that characterizes them.