Trajectoires territoriales et « empreinte » de l'histoire : le cas de Grasse et de la Ciotat en région PACA

This paper presents the results of research into the processes of transition that have been at work over the past 25 years in two French clusters in the South East region. In these areas, the emergence and development of long term economic activity was rooted in the presence of abundant physical resources which used to be specific and almost non transferable because they were linked with geographical characteristics. At the same time, the physical space constituted the “matrix" of the economic and social space. Today, the nature of the relevant resources has changed. They are no more material and associated with the physical space, but more and more immaterial and associated with the organised space. Our objective here is to analyse this transition, in particular, because this process of dematerialisation implies more cooperation between local, private or public, actors. The unifying thread guiding our investigation was the analysis of proximities, whether they be geographical, organisational or institutional. But at the same time, history is critical to understand the way the transition is operating. History leaves physical, social and cognitive imprints on territories. All these imprints are of crucial importance as they play as catalysts or as barriers for cooperation.