Josselin Droff and Julien Malizard present a communication to the 55th Colloquium of the French Language Regional Science Association (ASRDLF) to Caen (4-6 July 2018). The aim of this conference is to discuss the relationship between the various economic players (public, private, associations) and regionalisation. Today, regionalisation is taking different formss, whether economic, cultural, geographical or institutional. Conceived both as a process of dividing up territories and as a set of relationships leading to the emergence of organised spatial systems, regionalisation questions the practices of the players.
The article presented by the authors is entitled:
« When the army leaves! Empirical insights into the geographical reorganisation of Defence in France« .
The article questions the regional planning logic in the Ministry of Defence's rationalisation policy. The authors assess the coherence of the policy to support territorial restructuring in France since the end of the Second World War. 2000s. On the basis of data collected at the’departmental level, a econometric analysis compares the demographic, economic and political situation of the territories with the financial compensation received. Overall, the results show that defence reorganisations are not carried out «above ground».» and that territories and their economic situation are integrated into the overall strategy of the public decision-maker. These results provide food for thought for the debate on the value and effectiveness of this type of public policy when it is undertaken by a player whose primary function is not, a priori, to do so.
This article follows on from the previous work by the authors who, for several years now, have been contributing to the debate on the issue of Defence territorial restructuring.
