Le territoire est aujourd'hui sollicité par l'analyse géographique précisément parce qu'il se situe à l'articulation entre espace et politique. Les dynamiques spatiales et leur traduction paysagère renvoient aux acteurs sociaux, à leurs objectifs, leurs stratégies, leurs contradictions. C'est à la rencontre des systèmes de pouvoir et des pulsions profondes des sociétés, mêlant confusément la passion à la raison, que se noue la relation complexe entre espace et politique. Le champ des interactions est infini, le champ de réflexion est immense. Les études de cas, consacrées à ces pays qu'on dit du " Sud ", juxtaposent les situations locales aux effets de la mondialisation, les dynamiques " du haut " et celles " du bas ", les situations extrêmes de guerre aux jeux ordinaires de pouvoir pour le contrôle de l'espace. Elles proposent ainsi, dans leur diversité, un panorama de problèmes auxquels sont confrontés les pays en développement, tout en soulignant la pertinence d'une approche construite sur la trilogie politique-espace-paysage.

On the world map, macro-regions or global regions have gradually emerged, with varying degrees of success and following different trajectories. The authors of this book attempt to determine whether, within the context of globalization, these macro-regions have become an additional level in the spatial deployment of numerous actors, and whether they have come to stand between the national and global levels. This question has arisen because the increasing scales of trade, environmental problems, migration routes, energy distribution, the construction of major infrastructures etc. transcend national boundaries and are leading states to implement macro-regional cooperation. The authors ask whether these large regional groupings are becoming genuine territories and are the fruit of in-depth regional integration – economic, institutional, legal, normative, political, cultural and in terms of identity. If so, these global regions would therefore become referents that make sense and take root in social representations.

Based on long-term research in northern Chad, this book provides a unique account of mobility, wealth, and aspirations to political autonomy at the heart of the contemporary Sahara.

This book describes life on the contemporary border between Algeria and Mali, exploring current developments in a broad historical and socioeconomic context.

Governments use spatial planning as a public policy tool, in a “statutory system for regulating development and the use of land” (Jay 2010, 494). In practice, a spatial plan serves as a reference for development planning and infrastructure policy and for planning land uses. The value of spatial planning is that it enables governments to record the different land uses in an area, such as forest, industry or agriculture. Although much research has examined planning in developed countries, the connection between spatial planning and customary land tenure in developing countries is an emerging empirical field that merits greater research attention in development studies.