La figure du réseau : dimensions spatiales et organisationnelles

For several decades, network analysis has played a key role in social sciences. In this paper we show that it takes different forms, be there metaphors, relations or organizational structures, and that the benefits of networking are often considered positive for the members or even the society as a whole. It is clear as well that the study of the notion of network has, for the most part of the 20th Century, transcended scientific disciplines and ideological oppositions, from the early intuitions of sociologists to the debates on the boundaries of the firm and the homo economicus, based on the methodological improvements provided by graph theory and blockmodelling. It also appears that local production systems or clusters approach ask the question of the relations between networks and territories. But the spatial extension of networks goes far beyond, as emphasized by the examples of networks of metropoles or various proximity relations, which reveal the persistence of close and remote economic or social interactions in global spaces.