Teaching yoga outside cities: profiles, backgrounds, and social predispositions

Since the 1990s, the practice of “modern postural yoga” (Singleton, 2010) has been growing steadily in France. Over the last decade, the number of regular practitioners has increased significantly, reaching nearly 11% of the French population in 2021 (Kock, 2019). This boom has been accompanied by increasing professionalization and a proliferation of training courses. Like the practice itself, yoga teaching is now a profession largely dominated by women (Garcia, 2023). A trend is emerging among the social characteristics of practitioners: modern postural yoga is mainly practiced by “middle-class women with a high level of education” (Garcia & Fraysse, 2025), most of whom live in densely populated municipalities (INJEP, 2020). However, the lower the population density of a community, the lower the concentration of privileged social groups (Léger, 2019). While the professionalization of yoga has mainly been studied in urban contexts, this research thesis focuses on the specific characteristics of yoga teachers working in rural areas. Who are these teachers? Do they come from rural areas or are they part of a back-to-the-land trend? Among them, does the percentage of those with advanced degrees mirror that of urban teachers? What biographical patterns emerge in the careers of professionals in a highly feminized field? Do they share social, cultural, or physical predispositions that contribute to their entry into and commitment to yoga? What are the possible effects of rural contexts on this activity? To answer these questions, a qualitative sociological survey was conducted between March and July 2025. It is based on the ethnography of a yoga retreat and on twelve interviews with yoga teachers living and practicing in rural areas.