Actors, territorial dynamics and local development, the case of the Soummam Valley in Algeria ; Acteurs, dynamiques territoriales et développement local, cas de la Vallée de la Soummam en Algérie

Abstract

This thesis is about the socio-economic development process in the Soummam Valley, region of Kabylie in northern Algeria. The main issue is: How does the enterprises' agglomeration that has been formed on the territory of this valley, entail the establishment of a relatively effective territorial economic system (TES)? This question is all the more relevant as Algerian economy is mostly an annuitant one. Moreover, what are the characteristics of the socio-economic dynamics induced by this phenomenon of enterprises' agglomeration?Based on a strategy privileging heavy industries, the development policy that has long prevailed in Algeria relies on the idea that development is a process of socio-economic transformation initiated and led by the central government. More than 50 years after the political independence of Algeria, the national economy is neither densified nor diversified. It remains exclusively a mono-product (hydrocarbons) based economy and even more so a mono-export economy.However, over the last decades, one has witnessed a new approach to economic development issues, based on the concept of territory. In this approach, development refers to socio-economic dynamics initiated from below, by organized local actors who value the resources available on their territory. The relevance of this approach lies on the fact that these territorial dynamics refer both to a productive organization and a specific mode of regulation, in other words to the two interdependent elements that constitute the TES: the techno-economic system of production, ensuring the competitiveness of the territory, and the socio-institutional regulation system, ensuring its sustainability.This research aims to further understanding and enrichment of this relatively new development approach. Through an in-depth study of socio-economic dynamics focused on agribusiness activities in the Soummam Valley, we would like to show how the concept of territorial development constitutes an appropriate framework to the theoretical analysis, and how it ...