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The Territorial Divide of the Global Economy |
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Bernard PECQUEUR |
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| This paper intends to develop the hypothesis according
to which emerging forms of geographical coalitions of actors
for the organisation of production constitute an important means
of adapting the world division of labour to the global economy.
These forms, historically dated, constitute a postfordist adaptation
to the economy of globalization. The paper first describes these
different forms and then proposes a specifically territorial
model based on Quality and Specificity combined with the classical
productivity model. |
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The Impact of Globalization upon the Spatial Organization of
the Cultural Products Industry |
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Pierric CALENGE |
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| The music industry – taken in this article
as an example of the cultural industry – is threatened
at its very foundation by disruptive innovations and globalisation.
This accumulation mode depends upon copyrights, which enables
the reproduction of many local music production systems through
the mediation of music multinationals from the local to the
global market. How will institutional regulation of the music
industry adapt to these changes? Are we at the edge of a new
spatial model, not based on a multileveled mediation from local
districts to international markets through the national administrative
level, but rather directly from the local to the global market? |
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Social Capital and the Dynamics of Territorial Development:
the exemple of two French Rural Areas |
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Valérie ANGEON and Jean-Marc
CALLOIS |
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| In economic literature, strong proximity
links (local cohesion) are considered as an essential explicative
element of local development. Such an analysis stems from social
capital literature, which focuses on the modes of co-ordination
between local actors. This article aims at analysing the economic
mechanisms by which social factors impact on development. We
also provide an empirical evaluation of this theory on two small
regions of the French rural space. |
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Spatial Structure and Diverging Logics of the Bolivian Economy |
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Hubert MAZUREK and Louis ARRÉGHINI |
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| The territorial dynamics of the Bolivian economy
are driven by two logics of localization. The first, driven
by international capital, is based on the exploitation and exportation
of primary products; the second, more recent, derives from the
relationship between the exploitation of niche markets and the
revival of identity demands around the territory. Both logics
have succeeded in creating development opportunities from the
structural and institutional state reforms, promoted in the
1990s: reforms in terms of restructuring and of privatization
have encouraged foreign investment for specific products; and
decentralization has allowed a better use the territory by indigenous
organizations. The first logic, with its relative advantages,
has brought about severe territorial forms of restructuration
and polarization which has disturbed the regional equilibrium;
the second, with more with absolute advantages, seems to be
evolving towards more sustainable SPL forms. |
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Conflicts in Rural and Per-urban Areas. A First Analysis of
the Regional Daily Press |
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André TORRE and Christine LEFRANC |
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| The goal of this article is to present the results
of studies jointly conducted by several French research institutions
on land-use conflicts in rural and peri-urban areas in several
regions of France, and specifically on how they emerge and develop
and what modes of conflict resolution are used. These studies,
which are essentially empirical in nature, consider that conflict
is intrinsic to life in any community and that it is often a
tell tale sign of innovation and of power struggles. Conflicts
develop in time and attempts to avoid them at all costs might
therefore not always be desirable. Our database on localised
land-use conflicts was created by combining three sources of
information: the regional daily press, court judgements and
interviews with local actors. This paper describes one of the
methods used by the researchers, i.e. the analysis of the regional
daily press, which is an imperfect but rich source of information
on the subject. We show that regional conflict profiles can
be observed in the five areas studied and that these profiles
vary according to the types of land and uses, to the reaction
of the actors and their ability to mobilise the population,
to the manifestations and to the modes of resolution adopted.
We also point to the continuity of conflictual relations in
time and show that, consequently, the press is a mirror that
only partially reflects reality and reveals the state of the
forces and of the negotiations at local level. |
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The Role of Dairy Schools in Promoting Innovation in Firms:
Networking and Proximity |
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Michel MARTIN, Corinne TANGUY and Pierre
ALBERT |
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| Recent economic analyses relating to local systems
are based on two complementary assumptions. The first concerns
the importance of proximity between the actors, and the second
concerns the particular character of knowledge and knowledge
transfer. The notion of organized proximity, recently developed
by economists dealing with spatial matters, emphasizes that
beyond geographical proximity, knowledge transfer also requires
proximity regarding communication codes, systems of representations
and a certain stability in terms of relational systems. The
aim of this paper is to analyze the role of dairy schools (ENIL)
and of their trainees in setting up external networks and contributing
to knowledge transfer for the purposes of innovation. By studying
relationships between firms and dairy schools we assume that
these relationships play a vital role in promoting the capacity
for innovation in firms especially when it concerns SMEs. |
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The Place of Work in the Production Process |
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Gilles CRAGUE |
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| A considerable proportion of employees (one out
of five working in industry in 1996) no longer works solely
on their company’s premises. This observation tends to
raise the question (once again) of the place of work in the
production process in the geographical sense of the term. Furthermore,
this decoupling of the work activity and the workplace (firms)
would appear to suggest that we should enlarge the range of
spatial functioning indicators for economic activity by completing
the traditional geographic analysis of firms with that of the
geography of work. The article proposes a general framework
that explains this decoupling phenomenon based on the notion
of negative indirect action and it offers a statistical description
of these forms of work which are no longer carried out solely
on firm’s premises, based on data from the Changements
Organisationnels et Informatisation survey (Organizational and
IT changes). |
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Insertion on the Labour Market in France and Brazil: an Approach
through Territoriality |
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Christian AzAÏS |
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| The integration of individuals into the labour
market is dependent on two kinds of territorial relations: economic
and political. This hypothesis has been tested in Brazil and
in France by case studies that deal with 1) Public and private
sector initiatives to foster work access for deprived people
and 2) Urban management schemes to favour such integration by
political initiatives. An analysis of these two types of policy
instruments clearly illustrates the strong links between the
economic dimensions of a given territory and actions of a political
nature. |
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Mutation of Labour Market and Regulation of Territories |
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Patrick TERNAUX |
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| The purpose of this paper is to show that current
changes in the labour market are also influenced by spatial
logics. Space is not neutral and the strategies of firms take
this into account, especially as regards employment. Globalisation
does not erase territory, but reveals it. It deeply affects
the structure of exchanges, including a growing fragmentation
of productive processes, and with a new spatial and cognitive
division of work characterised by a polarisation of highly qualified
activities in the Triad countries. It is not however synonymous
with standardization, but with spatial and social segregation.
The logics of globalisation respond to the attractions of different
territories, each with its own particular potential, able to
evolve in space and time. Among those resources capable of bringing
value to a territory, the work force, more precisely in terms
of its competence and skills, can constitute a highly prized
quality. Too often neglected in recent years by specialists
in industrial economy and innovation, these resources being
again recognisedfor their historic relevance, in terms of their
adaptive capacity. |
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Some Social Effects of Housing Demolitions. A District to Saint-Étienne |
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Sylvia FAURE |
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| The article presents the results of recent research
dealing with the social effects of the demolitions of buildings
in social housing districts. If « urban renewal »
improves the districts concerned, and thus aims at attracting
or maintaining the middle classes, on the other hand, the conditions
of rehousing which arises from the demolitions are objective
constraints which weigh strongly upon the social-residential
futures of lower class families. More generally, the demolitions
have a significant effect upon the social relations of the district
by disturbing the living conditions of the inhabitants and also
by interfering with the social partitions within the district. |
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Is it Really Necessary to Demolish Public Housing Large Units? |
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Gérard BAUDIN and Philippe GENESTIER |
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| The response of public authorities to the problems
of large social housing complexes is demolition. This decision
is based on technical and social arguments, justifications which,
in reality, hide the intention of population dispersal. This
demolition-dispersal is the outcome of a reasoning according
to which spatial setting affects persons and that action directed
at the spatial factor would resolve social problems. This manner
of solving the accommodation problem of underprivileged social
categories and the universalist conception of policy in which
this question is framed deserve to be examined especially as
this measure entails the disappearance of housing able to accommodate
the most deprived section of the population. |
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The Challenges of Mediation Work: Lessons Learned from the Netherlands |
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Évelyne BAILLERGEAU and Jan Willem
DUYVENDAK |
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| In the field of social development in urban settings,
mediation can be implemented along different lines and can be
given different forms. In the Netherlands mediation lies at
the heart of a specific kind of social welfare work which was
developed during the last fifty years: opbouwwerk (community
work). The observation of opbouwwerk practices during the last
three decades gives us a chance to show the complexity of the
stakes of mediation between conflicting residents or between
residents opposed to governmental or semi-governmental bodies.
Such an observation also allows us to sort different forms of
mediation varying between two major types of mediation, the
impartial third party and the committed third party. |
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