The relevance of sociospatial shape as method of analysis of the Territorial Poles of Economic Cooperation[Les formations sociospatiales comme cadre conceptuel d’analyse des pôles territoriaux de coopération économique (PTCE)]

Territorial Poles of Economic Cooperation, TPEC, are local networks producing goods and services. They are organized around one or more companies of the social economy. These poles include actors whose various, even contradictor, spatial logics may compromise the success and the sustainability of cooperation. The analysis shows that the link to space is bearer of values and in this sense it is likely to consolidate the TPEC. The concept of sociospatial shape allows to better grasp and understand this potential ability of the TPEC to territorialize space on economic, geographic, political and ideological plans. Operationalized through 3 case studies, the concept is relevant to reveal the conditions for the TCEP to be able, or not, to co-create and institutionalize original local development models, particularly suited to the vulnerable territories, by relying on the harmonization of a multifaceted and regional territorial identity.