L’intermédiation territoriale publique, une troisième voie entre dispositifs top-down et bottom-up ?. Le cas du Pôle agroalimentaire de l’Isère

The Pôle agroalimentaire de l?Isère (Isère agri-food Hub) is an association that aims to relocate supply chains representing significant flows, in parallel with the development of short food supply chains. It was initiated by public players and consular chambers, and the association then included private operators. The association?s coordinators seek to ensure the territorial intermediation they consider necessary for this relocation process. We show the necessity and efficiency of this public territorial intermediation in the case studied. Faced with the wait-and-see attitude of local actors in endogenous territorial constructions (bottom-up) and the rejection of top-down devices imposed by public actors, a public territorial intermediation device thus appears as a compromise and a realistic third way for a place-based development. However, such a device is not a simple «facilitation», the catalyst of a process that could develop spontaneously. Faced with a plurality of possible trajectories, it induces a specific scale, selects stakeholders and guides actions. Public territorial intermediation is driven by a project; it gives rise to trade-offs between the search for efficiency and the desire for inclusion. Its success depends on permanent dialogue between all stakeholders.