Contenu du sommaire : Entreprises et territoires

Technology, firm strategies, and territorial order. Several different management models are emerging in today's economy. Firms choose a model not only in light of a given set of sectoral forces (product markets, technologies, etc), but also in light of the institutional conditions of the regions in which they must operate, which have «effects of orientation » on firms. It is argued that many such regions are essentially offering to firms easy conditions of entry and exit and that this has the effect of reinforcing the natural tendencies of such firms to adopt management models which have a limited engagement with territorially-based economies and societies. This co-evolution of firms and places is leading to a new geography of cores and peripheries : those places where firms are deeply rooted, and those places where they are not.

Territorial framework, and productive dynamics. The approach we adopt in this paper consists of defining patterns of local development and considering the dynamics of the construction of resources that generate advantages for the territories. Progression is built on the analysis of the actors behaviour, the nature of the proximity they are leaning on, and the modes of governance they tend to set up. In accordance with the three main dimensions of proximity : geographical, organisational and institutional, we present a typology of local development patterns and we set the basis of the analysis of territories' institutional dynamics, through the notion of territorial governance. By confronting these conceptual propositions to a set of empirical studies, we finally attempt to construct a more normative outline with a view to enlightening the set up and running of public strategies of territorial construction.

Rules and trust within a localised system. The case of AOC Comté cheese production. The aim of this article is to consider the connection between the notions of trust and territory. This question is examined in the case of the production of AOC Comté cheese. As a first step, the notion of trust associated with the territorial aspect of inter-firm or producer relations is revealed. Then an analysis grid is applied to the example of relations in the AOC Comté production process ; the process and its organisation are presented as are the contracts on which the vertical relations are established and the notions of trust and rules which apply at the base of the cheese and territorial production. It is shown that in order to understand the trust/proximity relationship, reference must be made to different definitions of trust. The notion of organisational trust seems worth mobilising because it makes up for the shortcomings of the contractual relationship and allows a coherent working of the localised system based on reference to local elements and methods of group organisation.

The search for insurance as a factor of urban polarisation. Considering the increasing uncertainties rising from the globalisation of economies, this paper puts forward the search for insurance as one of the major characteristics of the current changes in the relationship between firms and territories. In underlining the distinction between strategies of settlement and nomadism we will consider the different forms of this insurance as well as the terms of the assimilation between localisation and insurance. This will lead us to go beyond the opposition of the different ideal types of insurance reinforcing the phenomenon of urban polarisation. The latter would therefore appear as the durable spatial expression of the search for assurance of all the actors of a territory.

Firms, territories and networks. The globalisation of industrial research in the face of the national system of innovations. This article is concerned with the consequences that the global technological strategies of multinational entreprises imply for the national systems of innovations (NSI). The confrontation of a firm's technological strategy with the NSI's territorial logic is part of a the larger question of the relationships between the globalisation of enterprises and the strength and resistance of national economies. The first part of the paper analyses how global technological strategies emerge and how this challenges the NSI concept : we discuss the links between space/territory/nation/state, each of these terms playing a part, either explicitly or implicitly, in the building of the NSI concept. The second part deals with the agrochemical industry. This case study has been chosen to analyse the dynamics of the relationships between firms and NSI and to stress the complementarity between external networks of technological alliances and internal networks of affiliated laboratories.

Systems of enterprises and collective efficiency : problems of industrial policy. This article is based on two reflections : the systems of enterprises (not only territorially based) can generate very important economic success as the literature has pointed it about advanced economies ; the clustering, as a simple spatial or sectorial concentration of enterprises, is also widespread in less developed countries, that is not well-known. The analysis of these situations has led the policy makers to study how the clusters can be changed into complex organisational systems able to capture the advantages of collective efficiency. The article deals with the complexity of the clustering phenomenon, the concept of collective efficiency, and the crucial passages to which the industrial policy is confronted.

Social structures, cultural traditions and industrial innovation in the Quebec Beauce. A localised analysis of industrial enterprise, particularly in a rural environment, cannot be dissociated from that of the social structures and cultural traditions of the area under consideration. The study of the Quebec Beauce, poorly endowed with factors of economic development, requires an approach which gives greater consideration to the process of mobilising resources, of reviving traditional know-how, of technical and organisational innovation and of cooperation between the various groups of local actors (firms, elected representatives, financial and educational institutes). The great capacity of business to adapt to the terms of the internationalisation of economic exchange (flexible specialisation) can be partly correlated with the nature of the social relations which develop within the firms and with the strength of feelings of identity and belonging.

From the coal basin of Decazeville to «Mechanic Valley ». In 1987, in a highly rural French department, the isolated industrial Decazeville basin was facing the end of its iron and steel activity. Furthermore, this followed the cessation of underground coal mining in the sixties. The State approved and participated in the financing of an economic redeployment project characterised by its originality and its voluntary nature. Although at first the results adequately met the expectations of the project, the general slow-down of economic activity in 1991 brought a severe blow to the reconversion attempt. However, as early as 1994, indicators of a new dynamic turnover were noticeable. Operating in such domains as mechanics, small and medium size firms were actually creating jobs and thriving on the basis of new dynamic relationships. Are we therefore witnessing the emergence of a «Mechanic Valley » built on the industrial basin model that could follow the former productive organisation of the old industry of Decazeville ?

The territorial strategies of provincial written press companies. Just as local newspapers differ from other types of goods, common sense would seem to consider the organisations that produce newspapers as different from real firms. However, when their territorial strategies are examined, it becomes apparent that arguments of community tie and mirror functions are used to justify financial, industrial and commercial choices made by paper owners.

Localism as a society phenomenon. The return to a local perspective appears to be a salient feature of contemporary Western societies. Localism is presently accepted as a social fact (local experience) and plays a specific part in social structure (social building). In the scientific domain, this development has given rise to a community of localist researchers sometimes transcending the specific nature of each subject matter. The legitimacy of a local viewpoint is accepted as an angle of observation or as a field of research but also as a subject for analysis or as a theoretical or methodological tool. The localised approach differs among the social sciences but a multidisciplinary approach enables the furthering of our understanding of local society and the social framework.