Subject :  The productive future of industrial territories. An analysis of the diversity of local economic trajectories

Jury :

Abstract : 

Since the 1970s, a process of deindustrialisation has taken place in all industrialized countries. This process comes partly from the exacerbation of international competition but also from structural changes. The industry continues to designate all activities that contribute to the production of material goods. Its jobs and functions evolve, however, leading to deep territorial divergences.

In this context, the traditionally industrial territories are said to be weakened. Faced with their probable decline, multiple avenues of redevelopment are highlighted, based on cultural, heritage, tourism or residential levers. Paradoxically, their future productive capacities are rarely questioned. This thesis raises the question of a productive future for these territories, in France, especially when they are located outside large urban areas.

Assuming that the origins of territorial change can be both exogenous and endogenous, and that territories are largely dependent on their past, this thesis proposes an analysis that takes into account local trajectories over the last fifty years. This research is based on a mixed methodology combining quantitative elements, at the scale of all French industrial living areas, and qualitative from three case studies: Bocage Bressuirais, Romans-sur-Isère and Annonay. This thesis invites us to take into account the diversity of territories and to reconsider their overall economic and sociodemographic fragility. In doing so, it shows that a productive renewal is possible. The thesis finally details the multiple paths that can be borrowed face to the emergence of new challenges like digital, sustainability and social innovation.