Description

The current decade has stressed the reinforcement of three major trends affecting developed economies since at least half a century. The frrst trend concerns the im- portance of innovations for fIrms, regions and nations. Even if innovation, however defmed, is not a recent phenomenon, the crucial role innovativeness plays in a world of increased competition reveals its importance as a major economic phe- nomenon. A second prominent trend corresponds to the "tertiarisation of the econ- omy", i. e. the considerable and continuous expansion of the share of services in contemporary economies. 1 The third trend consists in the substantial changes af- fecting the economical meaning of "space". Signs of these substantial changes can be found in the increased unity of "space" (the globalisation phenomenon), in the appearance of new territories (as suggested by the emergence of a "virtual conti- nent"2) as well as in the reconsideration of existing ones (for instance, induced by new flexible production systems). As such, these three trends express a triple break- down: a breakdown in the time scale of the economy (due to the increasing velocity of economic activities), a breakdown in the nature of the economy (since "intangi- ble production" is expanding) and a breakdown in the space(s) of the economy (be- cause of shifting dimensions). Certain categories of activities or actors may high- light and even symbolise this triple rupture in diverse ways.