This paper deals with the process of peri-urban farmland publicization. The question of publicization of public space lies at the heart of urban studies. In France another process, the publicization of countryside, involves the engagement of the urban population with housing, leisure or tourism in rural spaces. After presenting two major scholarly approaches in a literature review, the authors construct an analytical framework. This framework mobilizes the tools of urban studies to gain understanding of the publicization process when it is applied to farmland. It is deployed along three main lines (public policies, spatial practices and public debate), two spatial scales (territory and place) and five analytical dimensions (legal, social, politic, historic and economic). Applied to a case study, the Lunellois in the South of France (between Montpellier and Nîmes), this framework reveals a new relationships between city and countryside. Agricultural activity manifests a specific peri-urban dynamics. The authors end by exploring the rise of a new type of public space in peri-urban areas. In certain conditions, farmland can play a role in the affirmation of peri-urban public spaces.