The making of economic development in southern Syria: between migratory networks and community mobilisation[La fabrique du développement économique dans le sud de la Syrie : entre réseaux migratoires et mobilisation communautaire]

Politically marginalised, the Syrian Druze community has always remained outside the major development projects of the 1970s, projects driven by a centralising socialist state. The development of what might be called their ‘community reduction' in the Druze mountains, given the high level of denominational concentration and the vigorous homogenisation process, seems to have come from outside the country. First of all from neighbouring Lebanon, but then above all from the returning migrants who have given their region of origin a new economic impetus based on the following triptych: arboriculture, agri-food and processing businesses, construction. Behind this autonomous take-off of the local economy and the socio-spatial transformations brought about by this dual dynamic - migratory movement and local development - collective mobilisation is emerging. Far from the mobilisation taking place within the framework of public action or a well-defined institutional framework (development association), the aim here is to show how development is driven by collective community and family logics that operate at several levels (local, regional, international).