The TZCLD Pilot Program: An Analysis of Institutional Dynamics and Shifts in the Composition of actors of Employment Policies in the Pilot Areas[L’expérimentation TZCLD : analyse des dynamiques institutionnelles et des recompositions du champ des acteurs de l’emploi dans les territoires d’expérimentation]

Law No. 2020-1577 of December 14, 2020, "on strengthening inclusion in employment through economic activity and the ‘zero long-term unemployment territory' experiment," extended the TZCLD experiment until 2026. This second experiment is accompanied by a new evaluation conducted by the Scientific Committee chaired by Yannick L'Horty, with the support of France Stratégie and Dares. To inform its deliberations, the Committee sought to draw on quantitative and qualitative studies of TZCLD. It is in this context that a call for research projects (APR) was published to support qualitative evaluation work on TZCLD. This report presents our multi-level, comparative research on the TZCLD initiative based on an analysis of the socio-institutional dynamics of this experiment. This analysis aims to identify and understand the impact of the experiment on the territories (what effects the experiment has on the territories and, in return, how they appropriate it) but also to highlight what the experiment can reveal about institutional dynamics. A common research protocol was deployed across the various territories surveyed in order to generate genuine insights and understanding.The survey was based on qualitative data collected prior to the launch of the APR (surveys on a variety of rural and urban areas), but also and above all on the collection and compilation of new material, used from a comparative perspective based on a common survey grid. This qualitative survey makes it possible to produce situated and contextualized knowledge. And if we take into account the "actor's point of view" and ordinary representations (Olivier de Sardan, 1995), we do so from multiple perspectives, drawing on multiple actors who do not necessarily share the same opinions or practices with regard to experimentation. The qualitative survey favors semi-structured interviews, supplemented, however, by observations of the concrete interactions of actors in various situations (CLE plenary meetings, committee work, unemployed people's support workshops, etc.). These observation periods provide additional perspective on the comments made by the actors.