Avant-propos : remarques sur la notion de « marge »

The notion of ?fringe? addressed in this dossier raises methodological questions ? the subject of the foreword by Philippe Hugon. In the introduction, Marie Morelle and Laeticia Laumonier lay out the analytic framework used to assemble the case studies, and put into perspective the contributions made by other social sciences towards defining connections between the fringes of society and the spatial fringe. But this position is worth discussing, as Frédéric Giraut and Michel Rochefort do, putting socio-economic power relationships back at the centre of the debate and highlighting the multi-layered imbrication of territorial realities and networking. Bruno Lautier then reminds us that other disciplines were first to use the term ?fringe? and points to the ambiguities that result when these unacknowledged inherited meanings are applied to spatial phenomena in search of concepts. The six articles in the dossier complete the presentation.