THEME 1 : Territorial mutations, production processes and globalisation
THEME 1 : Territorial mutations, production processes and globalisation
Over a five-year period (2014 to 2018), we will investigate the correlation between territorial mutations and production processes – together with production processes’ reciprocal impact on the reconfiguration of space. A number of factors can transform production processes and social dynamics, causing territorial mutations: increased competition between spaces and stakeholders; rapid shifts in land functions and value (urbanization, deforestation/reforestation, commercial pressure on real (...)
Theme 1.1 Agriculture, food and global markets
Agriculture (in the broadest sense of the term, encompassing farming and in some cases fishing and forestry when those activities are inseparable) and food security/sovereignty are at the heart of today’s scientific and political debates. As such, they deserve to be seen as an object of research in its own right. What production processes and ongoing changes can we observe, analyse, understand and perhaps promote, in order to create agricultural systems that are able to create jobs and (...)
Theme 1.2 Circulation and mobility
This sub-theme is fundamental in the analysis of territorial processes, as circulation and transport systems play an essential part both in production processes and territorial construction. Globalisation is characterized – both in the North and the South – by the acceleration of circulation and by the increased complexity and density of transport networks on every scale (Lombard and Ninot, 2011) . Transport networks support the evolution of production systems and give territories their (...)
Theme 1.3 Metropolisation, peripheries and globalisation hubs
The context of globalisation plays an essential part in the social, economic and politic evolutions that shape territories. Because they are both the cause and the effect of these evolutions, large metropolises provide a key object for understanding today’s mutations. Their analysis shouldn’t however be disconnected from that of the urban hierarchy’s other echelons, or from that of other spatial configurations (suburban, rural…) and other levels of territorial integration (national, regional). (...)
Theme 1.4 Urban governance models and political structuring of space
Today’s territorial mutations integrate – and are shaped by – relations of governance, both formal and informal. Although political strategies are set and implemented on diverse scales, observing the local echelons provides us with an greater understanding of the articulation between on the one hand formal and informal practices, and on the other the regulations set by public authorities. Under this sub-theme research programmes investigate the diverse local political structuring models, and (...)
