Abstracts

1Mihoub Mezouaghi - The question of productive territories and its application to the Maghreb, an introduction.

2Present debates concerning relations between territory and production are often based on a normative and prescriptive approach of local development, which presuppose the malleability, convergence and transferability of a territorial model. In contrast, we suggest an approach based on contextualisation (historical and institutional) of the territorialisation of productive activities which strives to take in account the diversity of local configurations. To begin, this approach necessitates a deconstruction/redefinition of the concept of “productive territories”, while reconsidering carefully three fundamental questions: frontiers, ways of regulating relations between local actors (public/private), and the durability of “productive territories”. Also, it allows, in a given context, to (re)qualify transformations of localised productive systems, according to empirical observations.

3Jean-Pierre Gilly – Economy of proximity. Methodology and case study.

4In this paper, are succinctly presented the main theoretical principles which are fundamental to the economy of proximity and specially the multilayered notion of “proximity” which allows introducing a dynamic conception of territory, in its productive and institutional dimensions. These principles are also mobilised for studying the diverse territorial situations which are briefly reminded. The author questions their efficiency and their adaptability for productive territories integrated in developing countries such as those of the Maghreb.

5Catherine Baron and Malika Hattab-Christmann – Local development and territorial governance. Malleability of concepts or transferability of models between occidental and Maghrebi economies?

6This study addresses the context of the institutional emergence of concepts of “territories”, of “territorial dynamics and governance” in order to see them in perspective with the realities of developing countries in general and of Morocco in particular. The approach of the authors rests on the contributions of different branches of social sciences concerning the analysis of the malleability of concepts. Notions such as “local development”, “territorial governance” are concepts as well as operational tools for the analysis of real organisational forms. Thus we can question if the transfer of political and administrative organisational forms legitimate the conceptual transfer or if, on the contrary, the conceptual transfer is not at the core of the adoption of a similar organisational design.

7Zouhour Karray and Slim Driss – Direct foreign investments and industrial concentration. The Tunisian case.

8Starting off from the observation of the unequal distribution of industrial activities and foreign investments in Tunisia, the article studies the phenomenon of concentration of industrial activities and their relation to direct foreign investments (Dfi). The authors consider that the decision of localising a foreign company is a two-step process, first comes the choice of country, than the choice of region within the country. Drawing on the findings of the “new economical geography”, they put forward an analysis of the attracting factors (institutional, economical and social factors) and of the determinants of choice of localisation (centrifugal and centripetal forces). The phenomenon of concentration which therefore results can lead up to the specialisation of certain regions. The calculations of different indexes of concentration (from data on total employment and on employment created by the DFI) show a geographical concentration of activities, as well as a regional specialisation.

9Youghourta Bellache – The impact of structural ajustment program on local development. The case of northern side of the Babors-Biban hills (wilaya of Bejaïa).

10The implementation of structural adjustment, understood as a set of measures aimed at reducing the economical and social action of the State, has had important effects on the local development of the wilaya of Bejaïa. On social issues, the implementation of the structural adjustment in the 1990’s has caused a drastic reduction of the budgetary endowment allocated by the State to the wilaya and its communes, to lead to actions of developments. Contrarily to a widespread idea, this budgetary reduction has not lead to the blockage of main public services but to their relative improvement. This results from the combination of two factors, the redefinition of local priorities, and the improvement of the management of budget and local public investments. On the other hand, on the employment front, structural adjustment seems to have failed as it has ended by the closure of a number of public economical units, resulting in massive loss of jobs, without enabling a real development of the private sector, susceptible to reduce the very high unemployment rate in the region.

11Améziane Ferguene – Craftwork and local dynamics in the medinas of Fès (Marocco) and Sfax (Tunisia).

12To a different degree, ancient urban centres of Sfax (Tunisia) and Fès (Marocco) are the theatre of socioeconomical abundance which originate, in both these territories, in a dynamic of local development not only original but promising. What are the main traits of this territorial dynamics at work in these two medinas? What role do labour and its know-how play? Moreover, in the actual context of globalisation, what relation do these two local systems maintain with the exterior, mainly the international market? From the analysis, we can understand that both in Fès and Sfax, territorial dynamics mainly rests on ancestral professions and know-how which have been modernised and adapted to modern conditions of productions. In order to overcome their difficulties with competition, local economical actors, while making the most of their spatial closeness and of local traditions of solidarity, show great adaptability in the organisation of their activities, as well as a great deal of inventiveness. Lastly, their opening up to the international market allows them, every time necessary, to incorporate modern techniques of manufacturing and management, contributing to their efficiency.

13Jean-Luc Piermay and Alain Piveteau – From Senegal to Morocco. Pertinence and impertinence to productive territories.

14In this article, the authors, a geographer and an economist, suggest a confrontation of the main characteristics of new development logics based on productive territories with concrete forms of productions, in Senegal and Morocco. The question of pertinence refers to the heuristical quality of concepts forged through the analysis of post-fordist situations, though open to the diversity of performing productive performances. That of impertinence refers to the possible impasses of a displacement which would be too mechanical, or even prescriptive, of these concepts in the direction of economies which industrialisation remains poorly developed, and local development becomes a new promise of the improvement of life conditions. Pertinence and impertinence of concepts are tested here during fieldwork.

15Jacques Perrat – From local productive systems to clusters for competitiveness. Teachings of new French public policies.

16The evolution of French public policies reveals the assertion of new regulation logics. With the “clusters for competitiveness”, we shift from the search for common interest and for the development, in the long run, of the whole national territory, to the assertion of the market and large firms’ interest and to the selective and temporary support of the only territories able to assert themselves in the global competition. The paper aims to find in such evolution some teachings for the emerging countries, by stressing the strategic part actually played by innovation, in terms of territorial organisation as well as in terms of human competencies mobilisation or of institutional requirements.

17Gilles Puel and Valérie Fautrero – Development trajectories, innovation and territories. “Diffuse cities” and/or urban polarisation.

18This paper approaches the relations between IT and territorial development in the context of the globalisation and the reduction of distance. The theoretical framework, anchored in the geography, outlines the ties between IT and productive territories (dispersion / concentration,…) in order to measure their degree of interactions and the potential of territorial differentiation which they are carrying. Two case studies, one in an average city, the other in the “diffuse city”, but focused on an ideal-type, the “fun territory”, analyzes two trajectories of development which seek to anchor companies of IT contents. In their conclusions, the authors relativize the role of the IT, variable facilitating but among many others. The keys of explanation of failures and successes can not only be found on a local scale, but also on the regional or global scale. Lastly, they underline the impredictibility of the interactions between innovation and the territorial contexts strongly differentiated even if a few models tend to emerge. wilaya and its communes, to lead to actions of developments. Contrarily to a widespread idea, this budgetary reduction has not lead to the blockage of main public services but to their relative improvement. This results from the combination of two factors, the redefinition of local priorities, and the improvement of the management of budget and local public investments. On the other hand, on the employment front, structural adjustment seems to have failed as it has ended by the closure of a number of public economical units, resulting in massive loss of jobs, without enabling a real development of the private sector, susceptible to reduce the very high unemployment rate in the region.

19Améziane Ferguene – Craftwork and local dynamics in the medinas of Fès (Marocco) and Sfax (Tunisia).

20To a different degree, ancient urban centres of Sfax (Tunisia) and Fès (Marocco) are the theatre of socioeconomical abundance which originate, in both these territories, in a dynamic of local development not only original but promising. What are the main traits of this territorial dynamics at work in these two medinas? What role do labour and its know-how play? Moreover, in the actual context of globalisation, what relation do these two local systems maintain with the exterior, mainly the international market? From the analysis, we can understand that both in Fès and Sfax, territorial dynamics mainly rests on ancestral professions and know-how which have been modernised and adapted to modern conditions of productions. In order to overcome their difficulties with competition, local economical actors, while making the most of their spatial closeness and of local traditions of solidarity, show great adaptability in the organisation of their activities, as well as a great deal of inventiveness. Lastly, their opening up to the international market allows them, every time necessary, to incorporate modern techniques of manufacturing and management, contributing to their efficiency.

21Jean-Luc Piermay and Alain Piveteau – From Senegal to Morocco. Pertinence and impertinence to productive territories.

22In this article, the authors, a geographer and an economist, suggest a confrontation of the main characteristics of new development logics based on productive territories with concrete forms of productions, in Senegal and Morocco. The question of pertinence refers to the heuristical quality of concepts forged through the analysis of post-fordist situations, though open to the diversity of performing productive performances. That of impertinence refers to the possible impasses of a displacement which would be too mechanical, or even prescriptive, of these concepts in the direction of economies which industrialisation remains poorly developed, and local development becomes a new promise of the improvement of life conditions. Pertinence and impertinence of concepts are tested here during fieldwork.

23Jacques Perrat – From local productive systems to clusters for competitiveness. Teachings of new French public policies.

24The evolution of French public policies reveals the assertion of new regulation logics. With the “clusters for competitiveness”, we shift from the search for common interest and for the development, in the long run, of the whole national territory, to the assertion of the market and large firms’ interest and to the selective and temporary support of the only territories able to assert themselves in the global competition. The paper aims to find in such evolution some teachings for the emerging countries, by stressing the strategic part actually played by innovation, in terms of territorial organisation as well as in terms of human competencies mobilisation or of institutional requirements.

25Gilles Puel and Valérie Fautrero – Development trajectories, innovation and territories. “Diffuse cities” and/or urban polarisation.

26This paper approaches the relations between IT and territorial development in the context of the globalisation and the reduction of distance. The theoretical framework, anchored in the geography, outlines the ties between IT and productive territories (dispersion / concentration,…) in order to measure their degree of interactions and the potential of territorial differentiation which they are carrying. Two case studies, one in an average city, the other in the “diffuse city”, but focused on an ideal-type, the “fun territory”, analyzes two trajectories of development which seek to anchor companies of IT contents. In their conclusions, the authors relativize the role of the IT, variable facilitating but among many others. The keys of explanation of failures and successes can not only be found on a local scale, but also on the regional or global scale. Lastly, they underline the impredictibility of the interactions between innovation and the territorial contexts strongly differentiated even if a few models tend to emerge. practice of collective invitation/counter invitation called the mûdâwala. The author shows how this ritual models tribal solidarity (‘asabiyyat) in this region while it allows to maintain or to redefine tribal relations. Times of exchange and concertations, the mûdâwala appears to be a tribal public space or to have a tribal origin. In this sense, the analysis of this ritual contributes to show tribal relations in practice and not only from a structural point of view.

27Hamdi Ounaïna – Professional painters in Tunisia. Constructing power.

28The artistic scene of Tunisia has been, since its beginnings in 1894 (creation of the Tunisian Salon), the locus of different esthetical polemics. An analysis through organisational and small groups sociology enables us to show the importance of politics in the field of local pictorial creation. This approach allows to insist less on the “creative genius” of an artist than on his implication in a rational collective action: in this perspective, the artist becomes a “worker” similar to others. If the exceptional success of the first trial of professionalisation of pictorial art in Tunisia has helped in promoting this “modern” practice, it has also enabled the École of Tunis’ group who dominated the market, to fossilise the scene and to normalise the creativity of new generations of painters, until the 1980’s.

29Bouziane Semmoud and Hisham Hafez – The new towns of Egypt, between plans and realities. The particular case of Great Cairo.

30The new towns of Cairo have been instaured in a context of economical liberalisation and of poor spatial planning. If the reach the economical objective which had been assigned to them, a number of them suffer from mediocre infrastructures and public services and from a strong discrepancy between employment, housing and population. Thus they reinforce Cairo’s industrial polarisation and, without succeeding to find their autonomy, they simply appear to become far off suburbs, functionally and socially differentiated.

31Sylvie Mazzella – Private further education in Tunisia. A stately instauration of a private university sector.

32The article analyses the creation of a private university sector in the process of consolidation and legitimation, destined to deeply modify further education in Tunisia, under the political and administrative control of the state. The first part analyses the interdependence of private and public actors, as well as the mode of implication of the Tunisian State. The second part underlines the legitimation stake of private further education, while situating it in the continuity of University reforms of the 1990’s. Last, based on the analysis of the strategies of these young schools, and on their partnerships, the last part studies the active contribution of the private sector to a south-south educational space – in direction of French speaking African countries – and south-north, mainly directed towards France. In the end, the aim is to analyse the role which Tunisia intends to play in the euro-maghribi space of further education and, beyond, euro-african.

33Benjamin Stora – Between memories and laws, the writing of History.

34The aim of this article is to retrace the moments when “memorial laws” emerge in French society, from 1990 to 2005. According to the author, these laws do not all share the same nature (Gayssot law on the extermination of the Jews, law on the “Armenian genocide”, “law on slavery”, and “law on the positive role of colonisation”). We have to be able to distinguish between each of these laws, and be watchful that the State does not interfere in the work of historians.