Regional Dynamics in France. On Laurent Davezies's Book, La République et ses territoires

As a specialist in regional development, Laurent Davezies has for many years explored the dynamics at work in France at the local level. In his latest work, La République et ses territoires. La circulation invisible des richesses [The Republic and its Territories. The Invisible Circulation of Wealth] (Paris: Seuil, 2008), he shows how the French regions are sites of every kind of paradox: for example, it is in the richest regions that poverty is increasing most, and some of the least productive areas may also be places where social well-being is most widespread. This confirms the argument he has been making for a long time, but which has not until now received the hearing it deserved: the logics of growth and the logics of development occur in different spaces. Stéphane Cordobes has read this book for Futuribles and presents its main lessons here, which relate, inter alia, to new regional inequalities, wealth transfers and their role in local development, the residential economy, and town and country planning issues.