Nouvelle régulation concurrentielle et nouveaux jeux de proximités. Les associations d'aide à la personne à la reconquête de leur légitimité territoriale

The French home care services, organized around non-for-profit organizations, have been changed by the introduction of a new competitive regulation in 2005. Previously, these organizations were agreeing to share territories. They were benefiting from a strong territorial legitimacy, thus constituting territorial monopolies. These monopolies were based on both geographical and organized proximities, linked to the geographical constraints of such an activity and to the historical ties developed with local actors. Face to competition, their territorial legitimacy is today at stake. This article shows that non-for-profit organizations seek to establish their legitimacy by developing new proximity arrangements according to the departmental different policies and to the competitive intensity resulting from these policies. So the organized proximity is crucial in this process. It can be based on one hand on non-rivalry and non-intrusion agreements. On the other hand it can rely on rules aiming at the absorption of the weakest non-for-profit organizations.