Contenu du sommaire : Découper l'espace politique + Varia

The paper investigates the connections between culture and territory, based on two cultural public policies comprising a territorial approach: the public libraries (France) and the cultural centers (French-speaking Belgium). It tackles how these operators are reconfigured by their wider framework: the metropolisation in the French case, and the 2013 decree for the cultural centers in the French-speaking Belgian case. How does the territorial prospective implemented in these processes contribute to change the contents and the actions? How does it contribute to mobilize the local partners around common concerns and objectives? And how, eventually, does the cultural action resulting from these legal framework shape, in return, the territory, creating and developing the latter as a promise? The article is based on two different approaches: one from a sociology researcher and grounded on data collected during an investigation conducted in the cultural department of a French metropolis. The second is from the director of a cultural center in Brussels, analyzing the implementation of the decree from a first-hand field experience point of view. Using the concepts of hard and soft spaces (Allmendinger and Haughton, 2007 ; 2008 ; 2009 ; 2010), the study investigates the dynamics of the two institutions, in relation with their territorial actors. The analysis of each of the cases is organized following the questions mentioned above, and a summation then highlights the salient features of the comparison. Common traits between the French and the Belgian cases include: 1. The future territory as an orientation for the actions to undertake; 2. The present territory to be mobilized as an ensemble of actors; 3. A territory structured by global policies, to be adapted to each specific situation; 4. A decompartmentalized conception of culture, envisioned with mandatory connections to actors in other fields in the local territory. Dissimilarities include: 1. Object of the territorial action: populations in Belgium, collective entity in France; 2. Orientation of the action: towards the outside, to ‘attract', in France, towards the inside, focused on those already there, in Belgium; 3. Scale and visibility of the action: prestigious and large-scale in France, modest and not necessarily impressive in Belgium; 4. Model-based action: based on an existing model in France, to be defined according to the specificities of each territory in Belgium ; 5. Territory governance: all the institutional partners must join the project, but the users are not necessarily solicited in France; the cultural centers must implement a bottom-up dynamic with the citizens and generate voluntary partnerships around their project in Belgium; 6. Vision of the globalized world: in France, the modern world is positive, filled with possibilities and advanced technologies to acquire; in Belgium, the world is a place of alienation, and cultural centers must equip citizens with tools to resist oppression. By investigating the mutual reconfigurations between culture and territory, the paper shows that these two notions are invested by representations and ideal, and that their ways of articulations convey worldviews beyond local context: views of contemporary world, views of what “development” is, views of what constitutes the “we” as able to shape its own destiny.

This paper is a continuation of the scientific literature dealing with the politico-linguistic divisions of Belgian national territory. Through a diachronic analysis, it aims at analysing its most recent developments. A fieldwork, combined with the analysis of official directives from the Flemish authorities and the processing of sociolinguistic data previously collected, provide information on the new forms of politico-linguistic divisions in the Flemish periphery of Brussels-Capital (a cosmopolitan capital). This article assumes an ongoing process of national autonomy through more or less informal territorial demarcation strategies displayed by the Flemish authorities. Semi-structured interviews with elected officials, residents, cultural associations (mostly French-speaking ones) and civil servants from this Flemish periphery show that these strategies are always based on the minimisation of the existing Francophone community. If the Dutch-speaking / French-speaking dichotomy seems obsolete for such an internationalised periphery, and thus refers to worn-out linguistic battles in Belgium, the French-speaking national minority factually remains the most demanding and resistant to new Flemish territorial delimitation strategies. Furthermore, the internationalisation of the periphery reinforces the ever-increasing phenomenon of its francisation (following the model of the federal capital). In words, this French-speaking population denounces informal division manoeuvres that began in the 1970's, during municipal merging operations. The analysis of sociolinguistic indicators made it possible to test these accusations of gerrymandering. If the clearly intentional dimension of these strategies, with regard to the marginalization of the Francophone community in the periphery, remains difficult to demonstrate, it seems certain that the most urbanised municipalities (and those gathering large French-speaking minorities) were not merged with each other but with more rural, more Dutch-speaking, municipalities, not bordering the Belgian capital. This step has strengthened the territorialisation of the Vlaamse Rand (literally the “Flemish periphery”) whose administrations and ministerial offices now promote more punctual delimitations of space, of program, and more or less displayed perimeters of action. The management of these perimeters, that are supposed to guarantee the Flemish identity of the places, is today delegated to the legitimate local authorities of these municipalities accompanying a strengthened federalisation. The most emblematic of the decrees establishing such delimitations was the "Wonen in eigen streek" ("Living in one's own region"), now invalidated by the Constitutional Court of Belgium, which established that prospective buyers of housing in certain localities, where the real estate pressure is strong, had to necessarily prove their cultural link with the municipality of the desired property. This paper shows that other actors, locally appearing as authority figures (independent cultural associations, receiving subsidies from the Flemish Region for example) contribute even more to such punctual, labile, adaptable divisions, with a sometimes questionable legitimacy, and aiming at responding to regional imperatives of cultural preservation.

Organization of AOMU, through the making of a unique transport structure in the urban area of French Riviera have a major role in the inter-territoriality management between transports policies. The mismatch between the management of public transport produces acute complications for passengers. This confusion is based on the inadequacy of the institutional structures that are not at the scale of urbanization. Indeed, the AOMU are separate. Different cities of French Riviera must be linked to interdependent urban networks and this necessity comes the invention of new forms of government. This article summarizes a research (2008-2018) on the conflictive relationships between the institutions in charge of public transport in French Riviera and the development of a SYMITAM as possible territorial organization. Although existence of too many and independent forms of local government, the transport policies must be linked together by more efficient transport networks with a trade union? This article is based on the state of the institutional context, particularly difficult, on the interrelationships established between the different levels of decisions creating hope for a unified management, and notable public policy resulting from the authorities: the SYMITAM. This organization brings together multiples transport authorities and also it can be useful to the management of passengers between perimeters. The article contains a first part which reveals the political context with bearings territories between multiple poles of agglomeration. Institutions and organisation of transport are expected in a dense spatial area with distinct AOMU. In this first part, we explain organisation, operation and action on different perimeters of transports. However, there is now an inadequacy and maladjustments between land use and institutional structures. Each political actor may choose of establishing his transports network in this boundary. A second part studied the conflictive relationships of public transport and the political division in this multipolar space of French Riviera: the development of the AOMU, including Metropole Nice Côte d'Azur, limits the power of the Department but the Region was acquiring prominence in the management of policies transports, as departmental transport network. But there is always a political division context between AO. A third part highlights an analysis of mobility and in particular by measurement of stable and outgoing assets of each city to demonstrating the share of the population that cross borders regularly between perimeters. Then, we propose a resorption of the effect of border by the formation of new institutional structure: the SYMITAM. This establishment is the most capable of organizing the management of this territorial format in order to counteract the institutional fragmentation. Work relationships between institutional structures are strengthened but this new federal structure, the SYMITAM, doesn't perform its role of organizer and federator; this structure is represented by the conquering AOMU. In addition, it assists the Department.

Territorial restructuring appears to be a product of “rational” variables (technical, political and territorial), but also of “irrational” ones. The emotions of elected officials also partially condition the construction of territories and the redrawing of their boundaries. Drawing on a series of interviews with mayors, analysis of the way in which their emotions affect their decisions is made, and the territorial restructuring that ensues. In the national context of a France affected by institutional change (the new phase of decentralisation), the urban area of Le Havre (Normandie) illustrates the issues of restructuring that occur in many territories. The project of an amalgamation of three inter-municipalities to create a larger entity helps to provide input into the works of the local geopolitics. In addition to the significance of the boundary and the project, a majority of elected officials from one of the inter-municipalities sees it as being a forced absorption (backed by the former mayor of Le Havre, today the Prime Minister of France). Discussions about the questions of territoriality, identity (urban versus rural), and of sovereignty take place in a context where the affective dimension plays a significant role. Consequently, the literature from the fields of “emotional geography”, “political geography”, “cognitive analysis of public policies” and “territorial development” constitute the theoretical framework of this article. The cognitive sciences are also brought into play in order to analyse the cognitive structure of mayoral emotions. Every mayor of the inter-municipality who “joined the resistance” took part in semi-directive interviews carried out in the city hall on condition of anonymity. The data collected were the object of a contents analysis, a comparative analysis and a textual statistical analysis. We were able to determine from the Le Havre case that the more an elected official benefits from cognitive competences and resources in the framework of his “job as mayor” (high level of instruction, strong leadership and expertise), the less permeable he seems to be to the emotions inherent in territorial play. These could have a lesser influence on his decisions and he might be prone to a form of “pragmatism”. Conversely, those elected officials having few resources at their disposal will be more inclined to allow their emotions to affect the restructuring in question. If, according to our findings, this correlation appears significant, our analysis is more than an interdependence and it is not a matter of opposing competences and emotions. The essential point of our article lies elsewhere. Spatial restructuring combines political, cognitive, territorial and emotional dimensions. Furthermore, isolating the latter variable would lead to a loss of its heuristic potential. Both the cause and consequence, the emotions experienced by mayors are active principles, but also indicative of territorial play. Studying the redrawing of space through the prism of emotions makes it possible to shed light on the decision-making processes at work, the mechanisms of governance activated and the geopolitics that ensue. The emotions are an enhancing substance, intensifying the questions of power, identity and sovereignty, etc. In that, they constitute a springboard for action and a move from word to deed.

Both on a small and on a large scale, the political geography has changed significantly in France particularly since the 2010's. Many authors show this reshaping of territories (Bideau, 2019; Grison, 2016). In this paper, it is understood as a political process aimed at modifying spatial organization (Vanier, 2002). An age-long concern, it results from the existence of communal fragmentation, which is tried to be reduced. Thus, the "failure" of the 1971 Loi Marcellin and the failure to achieve the objectives of rationalisation and simplification of action (considered by the law relating to the Territorial Administration of the Republic in 1992) compelled the legislator to launch into the 2010 RCT law (Territorial Communities Reform). As a result, from this reform to the 2019 Gatel law, the French municipality map has evolved, with the creation of 774 new municipalities (CN) gathering more than 2,500 historic municipalities (CH) at the end of 2018. These gatherings are very heterogeneous and unevenly distributed on a national scale, with an average of 3.4 founding municipalities. A real silent revolution (Pasquier, 2017) in urban and rural areas, the CNs have the particularity of being initiated by local elected officials. This last point raises an issue, and especially the local political reorganization that they involve and the associated stakes. What are the reasons that push the elected representatives to create the CN, and what discourses do they mobilize? Among the departments concerned by this movement, Maine-et-Loire, in the west of France, is an emblematic example, including the Mauges territory, a community of conurbations organised around 6 CNs as early as 2015, instead of 6 public institutions for inter-municipal cooperation. Answering these questions from this territory led to a major survey between April 2018 and May 2019. The mayors of the 6 CNs and 63 deputy mayors were systematically offered semi-directive face-to-face or telephone interviews which were all transcribed. While the issues of reshaping were at the heart of the interview, which lasted an average of one hour, other problems were also discussed relating to territorial specificities, the future of the delegated municipalities and local governance. In addition, 800 questionnaires were carried out with municipal councillors, residents and local authority staff in order to identify the reality of CNs and the way in which the actors project themselves in such entities. The various answers highlight a certain degree of satisfaction despite the brutality of the change. CNs manage to meet current needs in terms of territorial dynamics. They can nevertheless be a source of tension, going as far calling into question the identity of the municipalities, or even having delegated mayors resign. However, generally speaking, a consensus is emerging. The CN is not challenged because it is deemed necessary. The appeasement will come from power sharing and decision making by those who hold the power, in this Mauges territory where working together and gathering together are asserted values. Ultimately, in spite of important advances, the communal work site remains open, with change opportunities towards territories relevant for action.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the possible implications for national representation and for the principle of vote equality, of the 2018 constitutional National Assembly reform project. This could, among other changes, lead to a 30% decrease in the number of national parliamentarians in France (i.e. from 577 to 404). The study does not follow the classic lines of electoral geography, which generally deals with gerrymandering, spatial analysis of the vote, or its explanation using sociodemographic or geographic variables. Our objective is rather to identify and, applying spatial analysis and political science, understand the potential impacts of a decrease in the number of MPs (Members of Parliament) on national representation. Using GIS analyses, we first demonstrate that the present electoral boundaries produce major inequalities in population and territory representation. For example, with the current 577 MPs the inhabitants of certain legislative districts are better represented, as they are up to 2.34 times less numerous in designating their local MP. Moreover, the size of the current constituencies can vary from 3 to 5589 km². With the planned decrease in the number of MPs, the issue is to know if it will widen these demographic and territorial representation inequalities. As the way to allocate the new 404 MPs in the national territory has not been defined yet, we explore the impacts of different allocation methods which more or less take into account the current constraints for the definition of electoral boundaries (for example the fact that each “department” must have a parliamentary seat). More particularly, the two classic paradigms for allocating seats are compared: the largest remainder method, and the highest averages or Sainte-Laguë method. The first, based on proportionality, is enshrined in the French Constitution, while the second is based on a divisor method. We show how these two approaches do not target the same objective, and how their impacts on representation differ. The study shows that a reduction in the number of MPs is not a simple mathematical problem, but involves complex historical relationships between demography and democracy. It gives rise to inevitable questions concerning the very notion of political representation. Simulations have pointed out that it is very difficult to attain equitable representation for both populations and territories if the current principles of political representation are maintained in the representative democracy model. In order to limit inequalities in representation, the reduction in the number of MPs must be accompanied by rule modifications to enable greater flexibility in the allocation process, in particular by preferring a regional rather than departmental allocation for MPs. The paper concludes that it is mandatory to take current changes in lifestyles (such as dual residence) and political participation (abstention) into account when addressing the issue of representation. This is particularly important in the light of decision making for the future implementation of electoral boundaries within regions.

12 Brazilian population censuses were published by IBGE, the Brazilian Statistical and Geographic Institute, between 1872 and 2010. The population figures were assigned, among other things, to territorial categories. These categories are a filter from which the geographical distribution of the population can be mapped. In the history of Brazilian censuses, we have identified three types of territorial categories: grid, place, urban/rural division. Territorial categories reveal the way a power divides and therefore takes charge of its territory. This corresponds to the relationship that the grid has with human settlements. Depending on whether the grid, the place, or the city in between takes precedence over other territorial divisions, we can characterize a state, an era, a policy. Thus, H. Le Bras has clearly demonstrated that the census was generally a showcase for the State. In this flood of statistical tables, "the only data surely used is the total population in each place". M. Foucault's panoptic state is reflected in these exhaustive tables where the entire territory is gridded: no individual leaves the net. As noted by A. Desrosières, this statistical language implies defining categories that make everything comparable. But these categories are subjective: they were invented according to the questioning of a society, a context, as C. Topalov has shown. In Brazil, for example, the grid dominates in censuses from 1872 to the present day. It is a major tool for the appropriation of the territory which endures but also adapts. Indeed, with the return of democracy in 1988, the grid became a tool for the emancipation of communities that wanted to form a municipality (municipio). A territorial division generally imposed in a "top-down" movement is then used in a reverse "bottom-up" movement. From the 1940 census onwards, the State recognized in each municipality the separation between urban and rural areas. From the 1980s onwards, and especially during the 2000 and 2010 censuses, the IBGE introduced its own territorial categories into the statistical tables, which nevertheless remained embedded in the older administrative categories. This superimposition demonstrates the recent increase in the complexity of settlement and the unsuitability of administrative categories to identify these new forms of land use. The practical problems of census organization require the definition of a fine census grid based on the identification of places, the localidades. These original census data published by the IBGE make it possible to draw up a very precise cartography of the distribution of the population. On the contrary, they show the specific objectives of the territorial categories produced by the State, at particular moments of its deployment, as well as the limits of their use for information or research purposes. Brazil is a unique and exemplary case. On one hand, the territorial categories are specific. On the other hand, all three types of categories are used by countries all over the world, not necessarily in combination and sometimes only one or two of them. Each type reveals the behavior model of a State with regard to its territory, which should be interpreted according to the specific context of each country. Moreover, regardless of the type of category favored, grid and place are inseparable. They are constantly defining and updating each other.

Gridding, separating, dividing the continuous space of societies: according to which dotted lines, which contours, which thresholds? The questioning is open and geography has not finished questioning the divisions. In contexts where the material delimitation and cartography of local territories are as yet unfinished, or even impracticable, for various reasons, the operations of division remain part of the discourse, but not without effects in local spaces. In West Africa, the immateriality of territorial delimitations was revealed in the light of the decentralization reforms undertaken by several countries at the turn of the 1990s. This discrepancy, between the effectiveness of the division on paper and the absence of delimitation, raises the question of the nature of the West African social space, particularly in the Sahel. Consequently, the analysis of the political division of local space draws on the analyses of Achille Mbembé on "itinerant territoriality" and those of Denis Retaillé on "mobile space" in the Sahel. The territory of Senegal, which is a product of "colonial manufacture" is struggling to free itself from the weight of this heritage. The most recent reshuffles of the local division since 2014 within the framework of Act 3 of Decentralization provide an opportunity to reconsider the interference of these reticular configurations in the territorialization of local authorities, while the Senegalese state is attempting, in a final episode, to build a coherent map of the national territory, which is still in touch with centrifugal dynamics. This article therefore sets out to explore the hypothesis that the local division of power in this country, particularly through the promotion of full communalization since 2014, reflects a territorialization of power in which the role of social networks, from village territories to the multisituated territories of migrants, proves to be decisive. This permanent tension between the division of local space, territorialization of power and reticular dynamics is observed from a study carried out in the regions of the river valley. Based on a corpus of about a hundred interviews and in situ observation times, the field gives the impression of intense movements and multiple connections, as well as the observation of a continuum of mobility for individuals seeking a balance in the dispersion of their living and working places. In short, the analysis focuses on the strength of mobility networks and multisite political alliances that contribute to the fragmentation of local spaces. The prospect of producing "territorial coalitions", to use Kevin Cox's expression is an uncertain prospect, since the Senegalese state is constantly making its presence felt in the territories. Despite a discourse focused on the promotion of local authorities and the territorialization of public policies, the actions taken since 2014 are the responsibility of a centralizing State that is being deployed in the regions thanks to a battery of emergency and emergency programs and with the support of structures that are in direct competition with the authorities. The results thus relate to the observation of a "mobile" division, worthy of a "territorial postmodernity", which it is not so much a question of inventing as of recognizing as such, since it is already at work.

The European Union seeks to build an integrated energy area. Begun with the desire to create a common market, this integration was then fleshed out with e.g. security of supply and energy transition. The discourse of the European institutions on this integration have evolved to become a defence of the European level as the optimum for an integrated energy area. Faced with this discourse, other divisions are supported both by other actors and, more paradoxically, by the European Commission itself. This contribution seeks to highlight the interplay of actors and power games behind these discourses on the division of the European energy area. It follows on from the work of Anglo-Saxon geography on the constructed character of scales (Smith, 1992; Agnew, 1993; Howitt, 1993; Marston, Jones III, Woodward, 2005; Moore, 2008). This leads to question the (fuzzy) notion of optimality that runs through these debates and to contribute to a reflection on the spatial models and scales for the European energy policy by raising the question of intermediate scales and spaces. It analyses the process of energy transition and the representations and postulates that this transition, by leading to a rethinking of the political, technical and economic scales of reference for energy in Europe, is part of a scalar recalibration (Brenner, 2004) which oscillates between various scales. The methodology relies on qualitative analysis of the corpus of technical and legislative literature produced by the European institutions (Commission and European Parliament), as well as on interviews and fieldwork carried out between 2012 and 2016, with various players in the energy sector in the European Union: European network managers, regulators, major energy groups, consultation meetings involving these players and local NGOs or collectives. This paper puts forwards four main results. First, the building of a European energy area is far from being limited to the establishment of a European Energy Union, through the processes of European integration and energy transition. Second, intermediate actors (network managers, regulators, NGOs, sometimes governments) generate spatial divisions at other scales than the one thought by the Commission at the European level. They may reflect technical issues (congestion and technical integration of transmission networks) or economic issues (delimitation of markets) and are therefore empirically optimal reference grids for the management of an energy sector undergoing integration. They may also be the result of a political stance. Third, the Commission's position in this context is surprisingly ambiguous. Although it supports the predominance of the European level, which it considers as an optimal scale a priori for the energy policy, it is nevertheless the originator or partner of a certain number of these sub-European intermediate divisions. Fourth, the role played by these alternative divisions thus calls into question both the uniqueness of the European level as a reference scale for energy in the EU and the optimal nature of this level for the implementation of the regional integration and energy transition processes that support the three pillars of the Union's common energy policy.

Since the 1990s, developing criteria to evaluate democratic systems has been a common undertaking in Political Science. Democratic transition was no longer the predominant theme, having been weakened by the supposed victory of liberal democracy in the post-Cold War context. In recent years, researchers have investigated possible reasons to explain the reversals in countries where democratic systems had already been considered consolidated. In this debate, Political Geography remained predominantly distant. This article aims to build a methodology to evaluate democratic systems from a geographical perspective, developing a methodology capable of drawing possible explanations for differences in the quality of democracy. Inspired by famous methodologies, like Freedom House and Democracy Index, this article created a set of questions using quantitative and qualitative ways to collect data about three different political spaces (Open, Limited, and Exclusive). The Alcaldía (municipality) of Cuauhtémoc, considered the political-symbolic heart of Mexico, was selected as the subject of this analysis because of its role in the political reconfiguration of Mexico City, one of the largest urban agglomerations in the world. In developing this evaluation methodology, we seek a new way to evaluate the effectiveness of democratic phenomenon beyond the usual analysis applied at the nation-state level of government and we suggest that the greater qualification of political spaces is one of the explanatory factors for democratic asymmetries found at different political scales. Our research show how the bad quality of new political spaces reflects and perpetuates the hierarchy between different representatives and participatory institutions in Cuauhtémoc, making participatory democracy a myth.

This article is a critical and retrospective analysis of rice farming programmes in Burkina Faso. Because of African States' lack of legitimacy, major hydro-agricultural projects have emerged as an opportunity to mobilize the population, especially the rural population, around development issues and to legitimize political leaders. In Burkina Faso, although recurrent droughts justify recourse to irrigation to secure agricultural production, investments in rice farming make it possible to reduce food imports. These investments in rice farming would conceal other strategic and political motives. The analysis of the strategies related to hydro-agricultural farming will combine both the spatial dynamics concerning rice-farming areas and the logics of actors' intervention, through a qualitative approach. The logics of actors' intervention consisted of formal and informal interviews with the services in charge of agriculture, producers and NGOs working in the agricultural sector. These interviews were supplemented by in situ observations on about ten irrigated perimeters and a literature review on the history of hydro-agricultural farming in Burkina Faso. The article first presents how rice cultivation has evolved from a marginal activity to an activity with a strong spatial hold and which mobilizes many actors and development programmes. It then analyses the relevance of the choice of irrigation and rice cultivation particularly, for the development of poor rural areas that are faced with climatic hazards. Finally, it deciphers the strategic nature of irrigation, which remains a propaganda tool in the hands of political elites who use it to enhance their legitimacy in the eyes of rural populations. Lastly, it reveals that rice farming, despite all the avatars we know about it, contributes to guaranteeing and strengthening the incomes of many farmers and food sovereignty of Burkina Faso.

This article discusses the management of the Atlantic area of Central Africa based on the Gabonese case. It highlights a maritime area with significant fisheries and oil potential that attracts multifaceted covetousness at the national, regional and international levels. This clearly leads to illegal exploitation of fisheries resources, particularly because of the relative porosity of borders. The article aims to highlight the motives, manifestations and impact of inefficient maritime management on the sustainability of bio-aquatic resources. In fact, the methodology used is based on a content analysis of press documents, official reports and semi-directive interviews carried out with about fifty stakeholders in the fisheries sector, public and private entities. While the results obtained show, on the one hand, the current inability of States to control their respective maritime domains, they also highlight the beginning of a coherent management of these maritime territories through national, regional and continental approaches.