Le territoire et son patrimoine

The economics standard approach starts from the exchange. Then, territory is treated through market failures. Territory is only a local space with externalities, i.e. out of the market interactions acting on utilities. Other aspects are let to politics which considers territory as built by political institutions, and first of all, national institutions. This paper tries to go beyond this dualism, and try to think territory in a unique approach. This approach implies to abandon any /a priori/, a-historic delimitation of economics. Modern territory is defined as a space of building up public resources patrimony. On this basis, we conceive the distinction between a political order and an economic order. Only a part of activities located in this space is present in these two orders; there is no need these two orders to be present at the same time at any spatial. The concept of heritage (patrimony) allows connecting geographic closeness with social closeness which is necessary to actors? coordination. Geographic closeness funds the territorial patrimony while social closeness comes from the actors? access to this very same patrimony.© 2005 Lavoisier, Paris. Tous droits réservés.