Contenu du sommaire : Rhône Alpes, région industrielle

The cycle industry of St-Etienne, which was organised on the basis of Marshallian districts, has long resisted crises through its ability to react quickly to changing economic circumstances. However, this activity, which has been affected by a rigid system of planning and has been relatively insensitive to changes in the scale of the market, has been hit head-on since 1981 by competition from Asian countries and multinational cycle manufacturers. This has resulted in cutbacks and closures, and the progressive disappearance of the industrial district itself.

This study aims to indicate the role played by firms from the Rhône-Alpes region in the building and maintenance of France's nuclear power stations. It is based on the examples of the construction of two plants at Saint Alban and the ten-year major service of the Bugey 2 site. Whereas Rhône-Alpes firms have been little concerned by the building of power stations, they are well placed to undertake maintenance work, even if this market is ten times smaller.

Pechiney has shifted the majority of its units of aluminum production abroad. Its research laboratories have remained in France and more precisely in the Rhône-Alpes region. There are many reasons which help understand this choice. In the beginning, laboratories were located within plants. Over the years laboratories became geographically and administratively indépendant. This paper explains why the Rhône-Alpes region is still the best location for this strategic activity.

The Rhône-Alpes region ranks third in France for the glass industry. There are nine factories : six of pressed glass, two of cast and drawn glass and one of glass fibre. Coal from the Loire basin, the markets of Lyon and the south of France and manpower from Franche-Comté, a traditional area of glass working, were at the origin of this industry in the middle of the 18th century. Present conditions of development of the glass industry in the region relate to : a good energy supply (the Loire coal basin no longer plays any role), a diversified regional market (building, automobile, wine, mineral water and food industries), access to European and Mediterranean markets due to new means of transport and the presence of two important industrial groups, Boussois- Souchon-Neuvesel and Saint- Gobain.

Local and regional authorities are economic actors whose growing influence should be analysed, along with the strategies of groups which dominate the industrial economy. Increasingly the action of the Rhône-Alpes regional council to assist firms relates to measures concerned with technology transfer or vocational training. This is welcomed by industrial groups, for such funding favours the improvement of standards amongst the regional network of SMEs. The geographical distribution of this financial aid reveals however that a number of different approaches are being pursued and that there is a risk of accentuating spatial inequalities.

Industrial GDP is a very useful tool of regional analysis. In Germany it is available for small areas (Kreis). Its geographical distribution shows a wide spatial diffusion and a remarkable interregional balance, reflecting the country's urban system.