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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2012

From the terminal to the metropolitan region: governing logistics development in the Greater Paris region

Résumé

My PhD project - entitled 'From the terminal to the metropolitan region: governing logistics development in the Greater Paris Region' – aims to answer at the following research problem. Does the development of logistics activities in urban regions - raising both opportunities of territorial economic development and problems to solve in these territories - entail to changes in the way that this sector is regulated and governed? Do these changes have consequences concerning territorial economic development policies and the way urban regions are governed? This PhD project may in this way participate to a better understanding of the way that activities which are in charge of managing goods – producing and supplying them before consuming – are regulated, in the current context of deindustrialization and mutation to a post-fordist economy. I focus on logistics as this economic function is thus gaining importance besides industries among these 'tangible goods management activities'. Among regulations, I assume that governance systems which produce multilevel public policies are particularly significant. That is why my researches are most of all dedicated to analyze the public policies supporting, shaping, or at least focusing on, logistics developments or managements. Thus, I must both understand the logistics economic sector and study the territorial multilevel governance as my goal is to analyze the systems they form. These systems must be analyzed as part of current regimes of capital accumulation and linked modes of regulation. The logistics sector is the market resulting from the increasing demands of logistics flows (freight transport, warehousing and other logistics services), more or less linked to the Global Production Network. Logistics development also entails to logistics place markets. In these markets, logistics firms are in connection with property development firms, and with municipalities in charge of spatial planning politics. The different spatial embeddings of logistics firms and facilities in territories they are set in will arise through this approach. These ‘spatialities’ and their consequences are in the heart of problems put by logistics activities in territories, which need regulations. These regulations are first of all set up by territorial authorities (from Europe to municipalities), undergoing numerous institutional changes: 'Europeanization', decentralizations, and deregulations. These territories are not only ruled by government actions but rather by public actions resulting from more complex actors ‘systems., as shows the introduction of the term 'governance' (cf: Le Galès), whose 'growth machine' and 'urban regime' are examples. Through this conceptual toolbox, I plan to analyze different territorial policies concerning logistics development, which could be economic development or transport infrastructure policies. One hypothesis commonly put forward is that possible shift of public policy paradigm towards sustainability could make freight transport and logistics new sectors of public actions. But economic development policies seem rather to focus on knowledge economy and creative classes’ attraction strategies. Thus, the following question arises. Who governs logistics when there are not policies about logistics? Who governs when logistics development policies are implemented? To achieve this project, the methodology must be diverse and multiscalar. The sector of logistics and its geography are analyzed through statistical considerations, market overviews, and cartographic works. Several territorial cases are more precisely qualitatively studied through interviews of different actors involved. Finally, some broader policies (port corridor policies, regional spatial planning) are also analyzed through the method of the sociology of public policies. Two main dimensions of regulation processes appear thanks to this work. The first one crystallizes at the local scale of logistics zones developments through systems between (peripheral) weak municipal governments, more and more powerful private logistics land and property developers and logistics firms. The second one results from national port infrastructure policies and maritime and river port authorities, gaining power and legitimacy in logistics field. Thus, different public agents attempt to build public capacity to govern ('governementalities'): local governments, region authorities and the national State through the tool of national port authorities. It could lead to the emergence of logistics as a sector of public policies, but rather as a tool of governance of logistics places than as one of governance of logistics networks.

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Géographie
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Dates et versions

hal-01057732 , version 1 (25-08-2014)

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  • HAL Id : hal-01057732 , version 1

Citer

Nicolas Raimbault. From the terminal to the metropolitan region: governing logistics development in the Greater Paris region. The First Erasmus Smart Port Rotterdam / Port Research Centre Poster session, Mar 2012, France. 1p. ⟨hal-01057732⟩
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