Today, it seems as if Canada’s Francophone community outside Québec will only flourish if it is able to preserve, develop and control Francophone spaces. Our article is an inventory of research projects that include this key notion in order to understand how the idea has been integrated into how these communities see themselves and how they want to constitute a society. Our literature review demonstrates that the notion of Francophone spaces has taken the shape, on the local level, of a parish, and on a larger scale, of French America and French Canada. When the concept of Francophonie was being redefined in the 1960s, the idea of Francophone spaces evolved to encompass provincial Francophone communities that could be linked by a network of institutions. More recently, we have more inclusive definitions of Francophone spaces based on individual language skills, and this in turn raises certain questions.