Industrial and territorial ecology: what types of proximity at work?

Abstract

For several years, industrial ecology has been presented as one of the prospects most likely to lead to profound transformations in industrial practices with regard to the environment. This new approach of the industrial system, which derives from the idea of an analogy with natural ecosystems, first highlighted the importance of interactions and industrial synergies in setting up a circular functioning of the economy, less intensive in consuming raw materials and energy and producing less waste, and then was interested in the question of the location of these flows and the importance of actors' behaviors. In this chapter, we highlight the contribution of the proximity theory to an analysis of the territorial dimension of theses synergies located at the heart of industrial ecological approaches. We first underline the useful insight it provides on the role of geographical proximity and its various manifestations, and the establishment of these flows. Second, we emphasise the relevance of mobilising the relational dimension of proximity to understand the mechanisms linked to the emergence and maintenance over time of collective action, on which an industrial ecology approach is based. For this purpose, we rely mainly on the example of the agglomeration of Dunkerque (France).