French Caribbean Territories at the Crossroads: New Development Issues for Societies in Crisis[Les Antilles françaises à la croisée des chemins: de nouveaux enjeux de développement pour des sociétés en crise]

Despite undeniable economic and social progress, development options of French Antillean societies in relation with tertiarisation are put in question by important stakes. The sectoral transformation of the economy, the dualisation of the employment market and structural dependency go along with widespread unemployment and remarkable social inequalities. Plethoric public employment, extreme consumerism and urban sprawl are the most obvious spatial effects of this model, whose corollary is the breakdown of social structures. Social change and new environmental issues go along with a renewal of identity issues. They put a question mark over such a societal model, as recent social unrest and institutional debates call into question of the relation of Antillean societies with their own space and more generally with their regional environment.