Trente Glorieuses Research Articles

Local and regional development policy in France: Of changing conditions and forms, and enduring state centrality

Since the end of World War II, local and regional development policies, and a politics around these policies, have been common to all advanced capitalist societies. However, how and why that is the case varies from one country to another. Amongst the reasons for contrasts between national policies of local and regional development, the following seem to be of high significance: the degree of central state regulation, the underlying reasons for interventions designed to support development, and how both central regulation and the major objectives of local and regional development policy have changed over time and across advanced capitalist countries. This paper investigates the significance of the state amidst all the other agents and conditions that have to be taken into account in understanding any politics of local and regional development and any success that the state might enjoy in that politics. This is done with respect to the case of France—an informative case given the powers usually attributed to the French state. It is argued that the French central state has remained over the post-war decades a key agent in the politics of local and regional development, a formulator as well as an implementer of local and regional development policies. This enduring central role in the contemporary knowledge-based economy era can be observed despite significant changes in the French local and regional development policies since the Trente Glorieuses era—the golden age of capitalism in France—in terms of objectives, forms and other actors' changing roles. The argument is informed by two key assumptions. First, the state should not be regarded as somehow opposed to capital; rather, capital and state enjoy considerable overlap in their objectives. Secondly, just as with capital, so with the state, there are forces beyond its control to which it must adapt.

Urbanisation et inondations : de l'opposition à la réconciliation (Urbanization and floods : from opposition to reconciliation)

Abstract. - The valleys have always attracted the towns and these ones have invaded them. This trend got one summit during the Trente Glorieuses period in France, towns exploding over the flood zones, with the no-risk illusion. From 1980 nevertheless, after several critical floods, a new attitude got up to take a profit from the flood zones in the urban development according to the natural functions of the streams. This new approach, both technical and prescriptive, is based on the ecological current.

The transformation of the state and the new territorial politics in western Europe

This comparative survey of the historical, institutional and policy aspects of regional construction in Brittany and Languedoc-Roussillon illustrates the paradigm shift in the nature and functions of the state and the emergence of a new kind of territorial politics outline in the first part of this paper. Paradoxically, the twin evolutions of the state and the European community have produced radically different results in the two regions. During the ‘Trente Glorieuses’, both Brittany and Languedoc-Roussillon underwent significant transformation socially and economically. Brittany managed to transform itself through the adoption of intensive farming, the arrival of large industry, and the scaling down of its traditional sector. Languedoc-Roussillon was also transformed by the same forces but went from mass wine production, through an economic crisis, and into more customised production of quality wine. The ‘region within the nation-state’ framework, even if its boundaries are contested, was a positive one for Brittany during the first period. Europe was largely absent. For Languedoc-Roussillon, on the other hand, it was essentially negative, exacerbating existing conflicts and creating new ones (for example, with the arrival of Front National politicians into the regional assembly).

L'agriculture française entre logiques sectorielles et territoriales (1960-1985)

French agriculture between territorial and sector-based rationales (1960-1985). The present article has two objectives. The first one is to give an update of the literature concerning sector-based and territorial regulation after the publication of the book "Théorie de la régulation, l'état des savoirs" (1995). These new contributions are organised around the notions of 'productive configuration' and 'governance structure', the former bringing up the problems regarding the boundaries of the regulation sphere and the plurality of productive configurations, and the latter introducing the dynamics of collective action. Consequently there two notions call for a re-reading of the regulationist approach which not only involves structural analysis but also which is both systemic and strategic. Our second objective is to examine these notions by studying the dynamics of French agriculture during the period of the 'trente glorieuses' in order to find the system appropriate for describing a plurality of configurations. In contrast to the representation of a fordist agriculture as a unique productivist configuration regulated by sector-based institutions, our interpretative hypothesis is based on two coexisting productivist agricultural systems, a first one made up of medium-sized farms supported by the development of industrial capital and a second one consisting of large-sized farms seeking to protect themselves from industrial capital.

The Eldest Daughter and the Trente glorieuses: Catholicism and national identity in postwar France

Few would question that France's national identity has undergone radical changes since the Second World War. This study explores some of the major factors and issues affecting the changing role of the Church in postwar French society, seeking thus to cast light on an often neglected dimension of recent history. Against the background of the ‘trente glorieuses’ , it examines the Church's emergence from the war, its attempts at self‐renewal, its internecine conflicts, and its contribution to the remaking of France. It also demonstrates that the secularisation of French society has been both slower and less complete than is often assumed, and that while the place of the contemporary Church is less dominant than a half‐century ago, its institutional power remains such that no account of French identity can accurately exclude it.

Les lumières de la crise. Les entreprises françaises dans la dépression des années 1930

The stars of the crisis. French companies in the 1930s' depression, Daniel Lefeuvre. The study of companies' financial results in the 1930s mitigates the overly black image of the French economy during the depression: The assets of most big firms grew ; for 92 % of these firms, profitability was also up. This period was also rich in promising changes: on the horizon were the consumption habits of the "Trente Glorieuses" and the growth of a gribusiness. At the same time, the modernization of distribution and new thinking on management ans sales methods were occurring, and technological choices were being made for the future.