Diffusion des TIC dans l’espace méditerranéen une explication géographique[ICT diffusion in the mediterranean space: a geographical explanation]

In spite of the proliferation of the economic works on the question of the digital divide as well at the level of its determiners as of its economic and social impacts, it is difficult, even today, to define the outlines of one paradigm around the concept. One of the explanations which tends to take more and more importance these last years is the one which dismisses to the sources of geography, localization and space. Digital economy is composed by definition of industries of networks, the usage of which continues to depend on relatively heavy and interdependent investments. We indeed notice that the distribution of these technologies, in numerous regions of the world and even inside countries, was made according to a model of contagion based on the geographical nearness. This analysis brings to light structures and recurring spatial forms of organization that summarize for example the models center-suburb. In this paper we propose lecture of the dynamics of the evolution of the digital divide in a space more or less built but susceptible to catalyze even more this problem; Euro-Med. Our results tend to confirm this established fact between three established blocks (EU 15, AC-12, PTM). An effect catching up, relatively fast, is noticed for the case of AC-12 countries, while for the PTM this effect seems to occur only for very few countries (with the exception of Israel). Our work also reveals a dependence of this effect of catching up of the level of development of the traditional technologies and in particular the fixed telephone. Indeed, more the initial level of ownership of fixed telephone is low more the capacity of catching up is weak.