Territorial Revitalization Strategy: The Case Of France Since The Covid-19 Pandemic

The place occupied by territories in the functioning of global value chains has been highly topical since economies were hit by external shocks of great violence from February 2020 onwards. Many components and final products have been subject to sometimes lasting delivery disruptions, which has highlighted the dependence of Western assembly plants on international sources of supply, particularly in the automotive and microcomputer industries. Even more seriously, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020, the lack of protective masks, the production of which was relocated to Asia, highlighted a vulnerability that could have deadly consequences for the population. Faced with this vulnerability, a virulent debate has been launched on the urgency of relocating industrial activities in Europe, which is part of a broader political approach to reindustrialization. This is particularly the case in France, where governmental authorities have decided to implement an ambitious plan for the revitalization of territories in 2021 under the leadership of President Emmanuel Macron. This change of course is surprising after decades of ‒desired‒ development of global value chains, one of the consequences of which is a dramatic deindustrialization in terms of employment, with the explosion of unemployment in many regions whose development was based on the steel and textile industries. The objective of this article is to present the main elements of the French plan for the revitalization of territories and to underline the importance of considering the shared value for a successful relocation of industrial activities.