Contenu du sommaire : Entreprises et territoires à l'épreuve de la démondialisation

Companies and territories faced with the challenge of deglobalization
This article presents this thematic issue of the Annals of geography, dealing with the new relations that companies and territories develop in facing the consequences of deglobalization. Although the notion of "globalization" does not pose any particular problems of definition in economic geography. This is not the case for "deglobalization", whose use is still controversial. It denotes essentially a specific phase of contemporary globalization, the "crisis of globalization." A new diagram helps to clarify the respective places of globalization and deglobalization in the economic dynamics of the contemporary world. It is characterized by two simultaneous movements, but in opposite directions : the first promotes the process of opening up to the world (globalization) ; the second advocates more the status quo, i.e. retrenchment and closing-off from the world. Companies and territories are on the front line of this duality. In the face of rising uncertainties, in the end, companies and territories are eagerly in search of solutions to withstand the effects of the crisis.

The competitiveness of innovation-based territories confronted with crises and de crises and deglobalization : the case of Sophia-AntipolisIn the context of globalization and international competition existing between countries, regions and global cities, the planning of innovative territories and their competitiveness have become strategic issues for local development. Sophia-Antipolis, the first European science park, is a relevant example highlighting different strategies territorial managers have been implementing over the last forty years, as means of withstanding various economic and technological crises, and which they are still conducting at present. The Authors analyse the different planning operations and policies led since the creation of the science park in 1969 in support of its dynamism, attraction and local integration capacities. It is observed that, the local innovative environment and its networks have always been support by institutions. Nevertheless, when some emblematic international companies left Sophia-Antipolis, it was the quality of the living environment that seemed to have ensured the sustainability of the science park and the retention of executives. Finally, the paper examines current policies carried out for enhancing this “ideal living environment for executives, mid-level and senior managers” and not to trivialize such an environment, given the highly competitive international context concerning the location of high-tech activities and jobs related to this sector.

Blockchain as a service to improve the competitiveness of companies and the attractivity of territories. Application in the pharmaceutical sector in the Seine AxisThe Seine Axis is the first European basin for the production of drugs. More than half of this production is exported. It is organized by the main international leaders which have been implanted in the region for several decades with an international development policy. Therefore, under the dynamic of globalization, this territory has had to adapt in order to be or to remain attractive, so as to increase the competitiveness of the pharmaceutical sector. This is being achieved in particular by developing two dedicated business parks in Normandy. Furthermore, in the context of global geoeconomic uncertainty, France has decided to support the sector by creating a new specific territory : the Seine Axis, as well as providing useful tools to facilitate the linkage between the territory and its companies. One of the levers for action relies on the process of digital transformation, and particularly on blockchain technology which influences the generative processes of flows, and not only merchandise flows. The use of blockchain technology with generative processes of drug flows means assessing action possibilities in the field of regional development in the pharmaceutical industry, or in their logistic organizations. Study is therefore needed specifically on the policies of geographical location of the industries and logistics platforms in this field. This research concerning the various forms of numerical consequences on the future of supply chain, with the blockchain, in the pharmaceutical sector, implies numerous innovations, within a framework of an active approach, by public authorities to the logistics domain of industry and retail.

The shoe industry in Romans-sur-Isère : from the international capital to a territorial revival
After several decades of expanding globalization, "deglobalization", understood as a process of closing down national economies, could restrict international trade. Whether economic or identity-based, the motives underlying this de-globalization call for a re-examination of the relationship between territories and industry that has been evolving over the past decades. In this context, the Authors make the assumption that the renewal of industrial activity can be supported by its territorialization. Our purpose is based on the case study of Romans-sur-Isère (France). In recent years, there have been signs of a redevelopment of a territorialized production around shoes. This is taking forms very different from the territorial anchorage that prevailed at the peak of the mono-industry. Without building themselves up in opposition to globalization, the actors of this renewal are collectively creating economic models (production, distribution, organization) operating outside the sphere of globalization.

Considering territorial capitalism : Anchoring and domination of the transnational corporation Michelin in Clermont-Ferrand.Transnational companies are now becoming increasingly nomadic. This trend towards deterritorialization is accentuated under the effect of financialization which detaches economic actors from spatial constraints. Beside this financial capitalism, concentrated in a few spaces of command, another model exists formed by the global firms strongly rooted in their area. The authors aim to analyse these through the territorial anchoring of Michelin. They then make the hypothesis of the existence of a new mode of accumulation : territorial capitalism. Using the territory according to its own interests, it is also characterized by a form of territorial responsibility granted in exchange for political power. Lastly, this capitalist system makes it possible to overcome contradiction between nomadism and anchoring, and to perpetuate the territorial domination of capital.

The San Francisco Bay Area, encompassing Silicon Valley, is the world's premier center of electronics and information technology in the age of the internet and social media. The urban region is a leading example of the dialectic of globalization/deglobalization via networks of big cities and industrial clusters. Its prodigious growth and enrichment has been marked by rapid innovation, new firm start-up, and venture capital, and this has led to a mythology of "immaculate innovation" by technical wizards, heroic entrepreneurs and cagey risk-takers. Reality does not support this view. In fact, the region's achievements rest on a solid base of capital investment, large corporations, agglomeration economies, technological development and human labor, both skilled and unskilled.

Companies and territories : between offshoring and reshoring manufacturing
The economic and financial crisis in 2007-2008 revealed the extent of the deindustrialization era that France has entered. The economic situation and the rise of emerging countries tend to speed up this process for most of the historically industrialized countries in general and for France in particular. This acceleration process seems to lead to deterioration of the employment quality, especially at a regional level (Cedillo-Campos 2004). However, observers have been noticing that several elements are changing the face of the system by favouring the geographic return of the production (Mouhoud 2013). Is it a minor phenomenon or are we dealing with a long-term change of course ? What would be the repercussions of relocations on the economy, the line of business and the job pools ?

French Tech : a new form of territorial mobilization to face up to global competition ?
With the aim to companies to exist in the climate of globalization, public economic development policies focus on innovation, competitiveness and the territorial structuring of the processes leading them to innovate. Many local development agencies have turned to support and implement facilitation mechanisms for companies. From this point of view, the French Tech initiative launched in France in 2013 raises the question of the enhancement and knock-on effects this type of public policy could bring for reinforcing the link between companies and local areas on the one hand, and on their resistance to increased international competition on the other. This policy is at once communication tool and vehicle for fostering outward visibility. It is also a pretext for federating the territory's actors by (re)constituting the French ecosystem of start-ups. The results of such a recent policy are investigated here with reference to proximities and local perceptions.

Division of Labor, Regional Development, and the New World Economic Order
The paper seeks to examine the logic relating the division of labor to globalization and its spatial dynamics. It begins by studying the genealogy of the concept of division of labor within the tradition of classical political economy. Different functional variations of the division of labor are analyzed in order to construct a general theory of the organization of economic production. Attention is then paid to the geographic dimensions of this issue. The relation between the division of labor and the centripetal forces of industrial agglomeration and the way the division of labor takes shape at different spatial scales (including the global) are analyzed.