Le Vietnam connait un développement économique qui s’accompagne d’un phénomène d’expropriation des terres. Dans ce contexte, la puissance publique joue un rôle important de cadrage et d’accompagnement. Cette thèse s’intéresse à la délicate question de la mesure de l’impact de l’expropriation des terres sur le développement rural au Vietnam. L’étude se situe dans une logique d’intelligence territoriale. Elle consiste à mieux comprendre les réseaux d’acteurs (paysans, planificateur, investisseur), parties prenantes dans les logiques d’expropriation ainsi que les interactions entre variables (sociales, économiques, politiques) engagées dans le développement des zones rurales. L’approche est systémique. Elle cherche à rende compte de la complexité des interactions entre facteurs, aux jeux de pouvoirs et à l’asymétrie informationnelle entre acteurs. L’approche mobilise l’analyse structurelle qui comporte des outils dont l’objet est de clarifier le rôle des principaux acteurs et facteurs du territoire et leur influence sur le développement du territoire. Le travail s’appuie sur une étude de terrain de six mois qui a mobilisé un pluralisme méthodologique combinant approche quantitative par questionnaire et qualitative alimentant les matrices prospectives de l’analyse structurelle. Le travail de terrain a été difficile à réaliser en raison du caractère sensible du sujet. Il a porté sur deux districts ruraux du Nord et du sud Vietnam. Les résultats montrent que l’expropriation des terres, loin d’améliorer la situation des zones rurales, est un véritable choc dont les plus fragiles ont du mal à se remettre. L’asymétrie entre les acteurs du territoire, le déficit de communication entre les acteurs du territoire ont pu conduire à des conflits sociaux. Cette étude suggère d’établir des canaux de communication efficaces et montre que la clé est l’éducation des habitants des zones rurales. / Urban bias and rural industrialization are considered as two essential trends of rural development. In these processes, rural areas face with many problems such as the rural livelihood, the problems of economy and society. It creates which the controversy of how to develop rural areas and what is really suitable trend for rural development. This thesis contributes to the analysis of rural development against the land expropriation with the case study in Viet Nam. It analyses two main areas: (i) How does the land expropriation influence the rural development; (ii) what are the roles of major factors and actors that have influence on the development of rural areas. The study is based on six months of fieldwork during which both quantitative and qualitative research techniques were used. The research design combined the analysis of policy reform and policy performance, the scenarios of interaction between main actors/elements in the territory to highlight their influences on the rural development in the land expropriation process in two districts, the North of Viet Nam. The outstanding methods are Micmac method and Mactor method that are applied for the first time in research about rural development in Viet Nam.Fieldwork findings provide new and detailed evidences to support the view that the land expropriation for urban bias (urbanization) failed to spur rural economy and improve rural livelihood, contrary to what is argued in most of the literature and the planner’s view. They indicate that the land expropriation for urbanization may change quickly “the face” of rural areas such as modern infrastructure, high GDP, however the rural livelihood does not ensure in both capabilities, assets and activities required for means of living in the short term and long term. We found that the poor farmers were beggared gradually and they had lack of the assistants to cope and recover from the big shock in the land expropriation process. Thus, they led the increase of social conflicts. The survey showed that the main reason of social conflict in two villages are the limitation of policy, the unbalanced power between actors in the territory (use Mactor method) and the lack of efficient communication forum to exchange the actors’ needs. From above failures, it is vital to establish the efficient communication channels or program for actors in the development process and reform the policy by increasing the right of rural people who have the least power in the system. This study also proves that now the key asset to support rural livelihood is education instead of rice land as in the past. Finally, through the Micmac method, the thesis identifies the factor system and classifies the strongest power macro variables which influence the rural development into three groups: the variables of policy, the group of variables belonging to expression of urbanization and industrialization process, the group of variables with revolution characteristics. They are fundamental to suggest building the sustainable development strategy for rural areas.