Laboratoire d’Étude et de Recherche sur l’Économie, les Politiques et les Systèmes Sociaux

The operationalization of smart specialization policy has been rather limited because a coherent set of analytical tools to guide the policy directives remains elusive. We propose a policy framework around the concepts of relatedness and knowledge complexity. We show that diversifying into more complex technologies is attractive but difficult for European Union regions to accomplish. Regions can overcome this diversification dilemma by developing new complex technologies that build on local related capabilities. We use these findings to construct a policy framework for smart specialization that highlights the potential risks and rewards for regions of adopting competing diversification strategies.

Abstract. The Hydrologic Atmospheric Pilot EXperiment in the Sahel (HAPEX-Sahel) was carried out in Niger, West Africa, during 1991 - 1992, with an intensive observation period (IOP) in August - October 1992. It aims at improving the parameterization of land surface atmosphere interactions at the Global Circulation Model (GCM) gridbox scale. The experiment combines remote sensing and ground based measurements with hydrological and meteorological modelling to develop aggregation techniques for use in large scale estimates of the hydrological and meteorological behaviour of large areas in the Sahel. The experimental strategy consisted of a period of intensive measurements during the transition period of the rainy to the dry season, backed up by a series of long term measurements in a 1° by 1° square in Niger. Three "supersites" were instrumented with a variety of hydrological and (micro) meteorological equipment to provide detailed information on the surface energy exchange at the local scale. Boundary layer measurements and aircraft measurements were used to provide information at scales of 100 - 500 km2. All relevant remote sensing images were obtained for this period. This programme of measurements is now being analyzed and an extensive modelling programme is under way to aggregate the information at all scales up to the GCM grid box scale. The experimental strategy and some preliminary results of the IOP are described.

Plumecocq, G., T. Debril, M. Duru, M.-B. Magrini, J. Sarthou, and O. Therond. 2018. The plurality of values in sustainable agriculture models: diverse lock-in and coevolution patterns. Ecology and Society 23(1):21. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09881-230121

Abstract The multi-faceted concept of proximity is often used nowadays in many theoretical and empirical analyses. It mainly originates in some French regional scientists' attempt, in the early 1990s, to develop new conceptual and methodological avenues with a view to the study of the industrial and spatial dynamics. The wide diffusion of the resulting research findings is explained by the fact that these scholars realized early on that it was in their interest to collectively structure their works through the setting-up of a research group. The present paper sets out to outline the scientific and institutional trajectories of the French group “Proximity Dynamics”, while underlining the progressive broadening of its scientific and institutional dimensions, as well as the main theoretical research fields these trajectories have permitted to investigate.

This article investigates the driving forces behind the life cycles and resilience of technological clusters. It concentrates, in particular, on the combination of critical parameters which allows clusters to succeed in disconnecting their cycle from the cycle of the technologies they produce, in order to maintain stability and growth in unstable economic environments. Three propositions on location decision externalities, the life cycle of composite technologies and the structural properties of knowledge networks are developed and introduced in an inclusive study of cluster trajectories. Discussions show that resilient clusters are those that combine network and external audience effects in location decision-making and evolve towards a specific core/periphery and disassortative structure of knowledge interactions along the knowledge and market phases. Understanding these pathways could be at the heart of the renewal of cluster and regional policy in a macro-economic context characterized by high instability and new growing consumer paradigms.

International audience

The concentration and dispersion of innovative activities in space have been largely explained and evidenced by the nature of knowledge and the geographical extent of knowledge spillovers. One of the empirical challenges is to go beyond this by understanding how the geography of innovation is shaped by particular structural properties of knowledge networks. This paper contributes to this challenge, focusing on the particular case of global navigation satellite systems at the European level. We exploit a database of R&D collaborative projects based on the fifth and sixth European Union Framework Programs, and apply social network analysis in economic geography. We study the properties both of the network of organizations and the network of collaborative projects. We show that the nature of the knowledge involved in relationships influences the geographical and structural organizations of the technological field. The observed coexistence of a relational core/periphery structure with a geographical cluster/pipeline one is discussed in the light of the industrial and geographical dynamics of technological standards.

International audience

Abstract In 2000, the Global Water Partnership (GWP) as the main advocate of the concept of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), proposed a definition that is now the reference, despite the ambiguity that persists in its interpretation. At the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, the State representatives committed themselves to launch “plans for integrated water resources management and water efficiency by 2005”. Some states immediately honoured this commitment by adopting new national water policies inspired by IWRM principles. Do these implementation plans respond to all the challenges of the IWRM? Or have these states simply reorganized their water resource policies to give an impression of conforming to the framework? In response to these questions, we present a history of IWRM and its conflicting interpretations followed by a case study of reforms enacted in Burkina Faso, to highlight some problems which are inherent to IWRM and how IWRM was transposed on a national scale.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a comprehensive framework for societal progress and planetary health. However, it remains unclear whether universal patterns exist in how nations pursue these goals and whether key development areas are being overlooked. Here, we apply the product space methodology, widely used in development economics, to construct an 'SDG space of nations'. The SDG space models the relative performance and specialization patterns of 166 countries across 96 SDG indicators from 2000 to 2022. Our SDG space reveals a polarized global landscape, characterized by distinct groups of nations, each specializing in specific development indicators. Furthermore, we find that as countries improve their overall SDG scores, they tend to modify their sustainable development trajectories, pursuing different development objectives. Additionally, we identify orphaned SDG indicators - areas where certain country groups remain under-specialized. These patterns, and the SDG space more broadly, provide a high-resolution tool to understand and evaluate the progress and disparities of countries towards achieving the SDGs.

In a recent literature, the structural properties of knowledge networks have been pointed out as a critical factor for cluster structural changes and long-run dynamics. Mixing evolutionary economic geography and network-based approach of clusters, this contribution aims at capturing and discussing the particular influence of hierarchy (degree distribution) and assortativity (degree correlation) in the innovative capabilities of clusters along the industry life cycle. We test our propositions in the field of the mobile phone industry in Europe from 1988 to 2008. We use EPO PATSTAT and OECD REGPAT to capture cluster trends, and R&D relations from European Framework Programs to capture knowledge networks and their evolving structural properties. Our findings provide new insights to understand the organization of clusters over time to perform along the industry life cycle.

Si le territoire s’est révélé un objet de recherche autonome pour l’économie contemporaine, il constitue aussi une entrée originale pour problématiser l’économie sociale et solidaire (ESS). Dans un premier temps, l’article présente une grille de lecture des différentes approches économiques, qui permet de dégager six questions pertinentes pour l’ESS. La catégorie « territoire » se prêtant ainsi à des interprétations croisées, les auteurs extraient du questionnement précédent, en lien avec les différentes contributions de ce numéro de la « Recma », deux axes essentiels de recherche : d’une part, la gouvernance territoriale des organisations de l’ESS, analysée sous l’angle de la prise de décision entre parties prenantes et des politiques publiques; d’autre part, les territoires cognitif et axiologique de l’ESS, explorés à travers la mise en oeuvre de ressources cognitives par les acteurs et leurs croyances partagées ou distribuées.

The present paper investigates the location patterns and the effects co-working spaces (CWS) generate on the urban context. The focus is on Barcelona, one of the most important creative hubs in Europe in terms of knowledge-based, creative, digital, and sharing economy, and the city hosting the largest number of co-working spaces in Spain. The paper addresses three main questions: (1) Which are the location patterns of co-working spaces in Barcelona? (2) Do CWS agglomerate in the same areas? And, (3) Do CWS coagglomerate with the creative industries (CIs)? To do that, this paper uses open data on Barcelona neighbourhoods’ socioeconomic composition provided by the Statistics Department of the Council of Barcelona and micro-geographic data of private CWS and creative labs in Barcelona. By using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Kd functions of agglomeration and coagglomeration, results show that CWS are highly concentrated in central areas of Barcelona where there are greater chances to meet customers and suppliers, the proximity to urban amenities and the fact of being associated to a specific place-image. Moreover, they coagglomerate with CIs firms, especially with symbolic and synthetic knowledge-based CIs. These results are relevant when assessing the actual goal of urban policies in Barcelona.

Starting from an approach that mobilizes a plural definition of proximity – institutional, organizational and geographical – in the aim of endogenizing the space in economic analysis, this article seeks to understand the dynamics of local economic spaces through a re‐reading of the concept of local governance. Thus, it stresses the importance of institutional compromise‐building processes in explaining the trajectories and the diversity of spatialized forms of economic coordination, and it tackles these by giving an operational definition to the concept of local governance. More precisely, it considers the mechanisms that explain the dynamics of local governance through the distinction between endogenous and exogenous dynamics, a distinction that accounts for the linkages between local governance and macro‐economic regulation. Then, in the second part, these theoretical and methodological principles are tested in an analysis of the evolution of local governance in relation to the process of industrial conversion in the aerospace‐defence industrial centre located in the Bordeaux conurbation. A partir d'une approche mobilisant une définition plurielle – institutionnelle, organisationnelle et géographique – de la proximité visant à endogénéiser l'espace dans l'analyse économique, cet article cherche à appréhender la dynamique des espaces économiques locaux à travers une relecture de la notion de gouvernance locale. Les auteurs insistent ainsi sur l'importance des processus de construction des compromis institutionnels pour expliquer les trajectoires et la diversité des coordinations économiques spatialisées, abordées en donnant une définition opérationnelle à la notion de gouvernance locale. Plus précisément, ils considérent les mécanismes explicatifs de la dynamique de la gouvernance locale à travers la distinction entre dynamiques endogène et exogène qui rend compte de l'articulation entre gouvernance locale et régulation macro‐économique. Puis, dans une seconde partie, ces principes théoriques et méthodologiques sont mis à l'épreuve pour analyser l'évolution de la gouvernance locale liée au processus de reconversion industrielle du pôle armement‐spatial‐défense de l'agglomération bordelaise.

Since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations, sustainability has been a key priority for European governments. While previous studies have investigated the associations between indicators of sustainable development, few have directly considered a multidimensional approach to assess and compare the performance of regions in terms of sustainable development. As such, a comprehensive assessment of regional sustainable performance is thus still needed. In this paper, the concept of sustainability relies on the construction of six composite indices (environment and natural resources, energy transition, sustainable mobility, economic dynamism, social cohesion and solidarity, and governance and citizenship) with the aim to provide an evaluation framework for empirically comparing the performance of the 96 metropolitan French Departments. Each dimension is explored by spatial autocorrelation analysis and Hierarchical Ascending Classification (HAC) to classify French Departments providing five different regional profiles of sustainable development. The findings make it possible to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the departments in the implementation of sustainable development. This approach provides the bases for a systematic monitoring of sustainable development policies at the regional scale.

International audience

Agroecological transition corresponds to a systemic transformation consisting in the ecologisation of agriculture and food. It concerns multiple stakeholders (farmers, supply chains, natural resource managers, etc.) and is characterised by a deliberate political intention to bring about change. This chapter highlights a set of determinants of agroecological transition at play in transforming the techniques and the values underpinning both agricultural production and food consumption choices – both of which can lead to various new agri-food systems. Based on the literature on transition studies, we focus on several considerations that could help stakeholders to better engage in such a process: (i) transition takes place over time intervals that vary, depending on the analysis scale (the farm or the agri-food system as a whole); (ii) transition is complex, systemic and requires changes of the whole sociotechnical regime; (iii) transition implies strong connections between niche-innovations and the dominant sociotechnical regime; and (iv) changes in values and individuals’ abilities are fundamental drivers. Hence, by focusing on the plurality of factors and stakeholders at work, we unpack the complexity of this transition, and in this way help the stakeholders to design and execute it. To conclude, we examine specific issues around the governance of agroecological transition.

International audience

The survival of farms requires innovative adaptation and investment to take advantage of the characteristics of the peri-urban environment. In Ontario, Canada, the Provincial Government passed in 2005 the Greenbelt Act that delimits Ontario’s Greenbelt—an area of 1.8 million acres where land is protected from development around the metropolitan region of the Greater Golden Horseshoe. This paper presents research on farm-level analysis of farmers’ investment decision-making aiming at understanding the impact of Ontario’s Greenbelt on farm investment. We interviewed 21 peri-urban farmers from Southern Ontario and 3 Greenbelt experts. Three sources of data are used to understand farm investment decision-making: farmers’ mental maps, the interview transcriptions, and the information provided by a complementary questionnaire. The results demonstrate that Ontario’s Greenbelt, designed to make agriculture the primary land use in the designated area through farmland preservation, is not sufficient. Protecting a sustainable and efficient agricultural sector requires the presence of the other actors in the whole food chain in order to supply farmers and help them access markets for their products, as well as provide information and technical services.

The influence of the diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICT) on the organisation and location of firms has been the subject of an important debate in economic literature. In contrast we focus in this paper on the effects of the organisational and spatial structures and behaviours of firms on ICT adoption. These effects are tested by means of an original data set of approximately 5000 French industrial firms, which enables us to combine the different components of the firms' internal and external modes of organisation and their relations to territories, notably by taking into account the diversity of their spatial environments (urban, periurban, or rural areas). Beyond the traditional structural determinants, results confirm that organisational factors play a significant part in ICT adoption. Among these factors, the internal and external modes of coordination of firms and the codification of knowledge, practices, and relations considerably influence the adoption of ICT. Results also confirm the importance of spatial factors such as the type of areas where firms are located, and more generally the importance of the firms' spatial structure. These results theoretically emphasise the need to depart from a vision of the firm as a single-unit entity. Empirically they suggest that ICT do not only enable the firm to manage problems of distance or of proximity, but also to manage new organisational modes in space.