Véronique Peyrache-Gadeau

The territorial economy: a general approach in order to understand and deal with globalization

Today many contributions are dedicated to the role of industrial districts, clusters and other such networks in local economic development, or to local innovation dynamics (innovative milieus, technopoles, regional innovation systems, learning regions and so on). In our opinion, the crucial question at present no longer consists of providing new notions and concepts. We believe that it is time to develop a more ambitious, theoryoriented research programme that aims to take space and time in socioeconomic theory fully into account. The objective of this chapter is to give a first account of what we believe to be the upcoming issues and theoretical questions in research about territorial economic dynamics. Indeed, a better understanding of the territorial economy is central to greater understanding of the roles that networks play in local economic development processes.

Natural Resources, Innovative Milieux and the Environmentally Sustainable Development of Regions1

Abstract Traditional economic theory views natural resources as production factors to be exploited for the benefit of society. However, for this exploitation to be sustainable it must take into account the conservation and/or renewal of the resource. Increasingly, development projects have come to regard natural resources as essential elements of the local environment that must be exploited in ways that ensure future generations can also benefit from them. This process has been termed “patrimonialization”. In this article it is shown that the constructive development of natural resources and the environmentally sustainable development of regions are closely linked and the role of innovative milieux in defining the nature of local development projects is examined.

Territoires touristiques : capacités d’innovation et vulnérabilités

Résumé Nous proposons une méthodologie générale d’observation des économies touristiques en termes de systèmes localisés et de milieux innovateurs. Cette conception permet une analyse territorialisée des économies touristiques (appuyée notamment sur le cas des stations alpines de sports d’hiver) et des conditions de leurs dynamiques d’évolution. Notre contribution souhaite donc apporter un double éclairage sur les rapports des activités touristiques au territoire : en évaluant la capacité d’adaptation de ces économies territoriales au regard de leur aptitude à innover et à anticiper les vulnérabilités inhérentes à l’activité touristique.

Introduction: sustainability, innovative milieus and territorial development

Following the crisis of Fordism, which was characterized by standardized production and mass consumption, innovation was brought back to its central position amongst models of economic and social change. Since the end of the 1980s, territorial innovation models (TIMs) (Moulaert and Sekia, 2003) have been the primary reference in public policies relating to innovation and regional and urban development. This book raises the question of the validity of those models, and particularly the innovative milieus approach, at a time when sustainable development has become the dominant norm in matters of territorial development and innovation. Can these models, constructed in a period when competitiveness was considered as a constraint and a solution to numerous economic and social problems, still account for the processes under way today and, more particularly, for sustainable innovation? Furthermore, factors associated with sustainable development complicate the issue by introducing broader objectives than those of green industry and competitiveness (Truffer and Cohen, 2012). The climaterelated, ecological, social and economic difficulties facing today’s societies demand innovations (Vollenbroek, 2002) that are able to support the transition towards a sustainable economy and society (Coenen et al., 2012). In parallel with this shift in social norms, the last 20 years have seen considerable growth in the mobility of capital, knowledge, workers and consumers. Moreover, the development of the Internet and mobile systems has culminated in ubiquitous connectivity, with the result that products, services and economic activities can be continually evaluated by a large community of users, citizens, organizations or experts. From a spatial configuration dominated by competition between regional systems of production and innovation on a global market, there has been

Innovation in sustainable tourism projects in Alpine resorts

Alpine resorts are particularly sensitive to the question of tourism sustainability, notably because of their economic dependence on winter tourism in a context of climate change. They can be characterized by the notion of vulnerability, which reflects their adaptive capacity to coinciding issues of sustainability and adaptation to climate change. This chapter analyses four tourist resorts in the French Alps (Val d’IsA¨re, Saint Gervais, Combloux and Les Gets) as innovative milieus that create the expertise required to address the potential challenges of this adaptive capacity. The chapter first provides an explanation of the specific characteristics of these resorts with regard to sustainable tourism, their relative sensitivity and capacity to innovate. It then examines the innovative dimension of local solutions explored in the four study sites, and their ability to stimulate real change towards sustainable development for the local communities.