Territorial Development between a Sociology of the Territory and regional Sciences: the Voice of the GRIDEQ

The groupe de recherche interdisciplinaire sur le developpement regional, de l'Est du Quebec (GRIDEQ) illustrates one of the lines of transformation of Quebecois social sciences: initially close to the sociology as a discipline, it gradually comes closer to regional science by proposing a social and interdisciplinary analysis of territories in Quebec. This trajectory exhibits a specific interest for the role of collective action within the territorial structures, an initially uncomfortable tension which opens since the 1990's to an intellectual renewal, around a constructivist and dynamic conception of territory, where individuals and social groups remain the essential engines. Within the framework of a new political economy, their mobilizations allow to consider the territories as constructed by community and social movements.