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Belgium at the Crossroads. Transport infrastructure and border effects considered in a geohistorical approach Belgium has prospered as a transit zone for the continental core of Europe. In recent decades, transport and logistics activities have maintained and even strengthened their very central role in the regional economy. This is especially the case in Antwerp, the second largest port in Europe (but the leader for value added activities). In Belgium, traffic management and transport infrastructure have always been regarded as a national priority since the creation of the modern state in 1830. As strange it may sound for a country commonly depicted as being “wide open”, the borders, especially with its competing Northern neighbour, are a key feature in the country's transport organization. From this perspective, they have to be considered in two senses : first, the state borders established in the 19th century, the basis of national unity, and second and more recently, the emerging borders between the federal entities. It might be thought that the border effect belongs to the past since the establishment of the common market. On the contrary : the Belgian case helps us understand how borders remain highly significant for constructing and re-constructing transport infrastructure within national territories.

Private investors and the reconstruction of the center-periphery relations in Phnom Penh (Cambodia) since the 1990's In the early 1990s, the reconstruction of infrastructure in Phnom Penh was embarked on in a context of gradual stabilization of political life, primarily in the central districts covered by the networks. But the high land and property speculation for years 2005-2008 became reflected in the launching of new towns, office towers and out of scale condominiums, both in the centre and at the periphery. These were intended to put Phnom Penh on a competitive footing with the big cities of neighbouring countries. Small landowners then come to sell their land at the periphery to private investors, as the municipality of Phnom Penh, which assigns a portion of its estate to investors in exchange for the realization of public infrastructure. These mutations are largely underpinned by foreign direct investment, i. e. by the capital of Chinese people living in Southeast Asia who are associated with Khmer citizens. Reconfiguration of centre-periphery relations is thus being set in train to the detriment of the poor, abruptly excluded from city center areas. Lacking of capital, and faced with a need for modernity, a demand for urbanity, the municipality cannot protect their living territories. However, limits to this foreign-capital controlled development appeared with the 2008 economic slowdown.

Metropolitan governance torn between economic and spatial adaptation to globalization and respect for local democracy, with the example of municipal amalgamation in Toronto In 1997, the city of Toronto was amalgamated with the 5 surrounding municipalities. The amalgamation was presented by the Progressive Conservative provincial government as a way to deal with the economic and spatial changes provoked by globalization. The project had to face strong contestation, led by the organization Citizens for Local Democracy C4LD. Citizens feared that the local power they had through the elections would be weakened by the new structure which was built for economic purposes only. The amalgamation symbolizes the opposition between two conceptions of the governance of a city which are difficult to reconcile. Since 2003 however, the new mayor of Toronto, David Miller has been trying to develop a new vision for Toronto which is a combination of the two concepts. In that perspective, it would be informative to assess the economic, social and financial consequences of this operation in order to understand what has changed in Toronto.

Family farming and sustainable development in a protected Amazonian area: the case of the Apa do Igarapé Gelado (south-eastern Pará in Brazil) This contribution is part of the DURAMAZ interdisciplinary programme. It aims to present a sustainable development experiment conducted with a community of family farmers in the eastern Amazon of Brazil, in an Environmentally Protected Area (APA) right in the heart of the “arc of deforestation”. The calling into question of traditional resource management practices by environmental regulation resulted in the implementation of various sustainable development projects within this protected area. This included support to family–owned farms at the expense of cattle ranching and further pioneer fronts. These projects brought about massive changes regarding production systems, seemingly along the same lines as those of the orientations wished for. Nevertheless, they prompt reconsideration of the issue of social justice owing to the cost of their implementation, and also that of the passing on of sustainable development principles to subsequent generations.