Ifsttar PhD subject

French version
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Title : Impacts of the Seine Nord Europe waterway on regional development

Main host Laboratory - Referent Advisor   -

Director of the main host Laboratory   -

PhD Speciality économie

Axis of the performance contract 3 - COP2017 - Planning and protecting regions

Main location Lille-Villeneuve d'Ascq

Doctoral affiliation UNIVERSITE DES SCIENCES ET TECHNOLOGIE DE LILLE 1

PhD school SCIENCES ECONOMIQUES, SOCIALES, DE L'AMENAGEMENT ET DU MANAGEMENT (SESAM)

Planned PhD supervisor BLANQUART Corinne  -    -

Planned financing Contrat doctoral  - Ifsttar

Abstract

One of the most tenacious myths in transport economics is undoubtedly the role structuring infrastructure. Indeed, it has long been accepted that transport exerts a automatic positive effect on regional and local economic growth and development. This direct causality has gradually been questioned (Bazin, Beckerich, Delaplace, 2006; Blanquart, Delaplace, 2009; Bonnafous, Plassard, 1974; Offner, 1993; Plassard, 1977, 2003; Vickerman, 1991), to give way to indirect causation or conditioned causality: the arrival of a new transport infrastructure would have an effect positive on regional and local economic growth and development if policies support are implemented, regardless of the structure and characteristics of the territory concerned (Blanquart, Delaplace, Poinsot, 2013). Indeed, if the systematicity of the structuring effects is criticized, because of the forgetting of the characteristics socio-economic aspects of the territory that this systematicity translates, provided that the strategies accompaniment seem to play an important role (Ollivro, 1997), illustrating the need for support the appropriation by the actors of the direct logistics and transport services offered by infrastructure (Blanquart and Delaplace, 2009). The expected effects of the infrastructure then become conditional, but the conditions of their appearance remain little explained. The nature and objectives of these support policies also remain indefinite.

These debates are more topical than ever in France, with in particular the construction plan for the Seine Nord Europe Canal, which has been the subject of a declaration of public utility authorizing the start of work. It is a heavy investment, estimated at more than four billion euros depending on the technical options selected. The scale of investment in infrastructures, and their high degree of irreversibility, justify, if need be, to shed light on the question of their contribution to the development of the territories they serve. Equipment structuring an entire region, within a wide-ranging European river network, it is whereas the Seine-Nord Europe canal has short, medium and long-term economic effects terms.

But without a theoretical representation of the infrastructure-development nexus, it is impossible to differentiate the gross effects from the net effects, i.e. to isolate the effects of a particular infrastructure among all the other factors likely to participate in the socio-economic development of a region, and in particular the strategies support (Blanquart, Delaplace, Poinsot, 2013). If work has shown that the role and importance of transport infrastructure in development are conditioned by the theoretical representation of development that is retained, the methodological limits approaches in force until now invite us to find other analytical reference systems.

The thesis proposes to renew the link between transport infrastructure and development by mobilizing a new analytical framework derived from capability theory around the example of the Canal Seine Nord Europe. The results obtained show a difference in the capabilities of companies to use river transport, and ultimately the Seine Nord Europe Canal. Thus, the appropriation of the infrastructure by companies will be different, in the same way as the support policies that will be put in place to cause a modal shift from road to river.

Keywords : Canal Seine Nord Europe, territorial development, transport infrastructure, capability theories, ecological transition

Main host Laboratory - Referent Advisor	-
Director of the main host Laboratory	-
PhD Speciality	économie
Axis of the performance contract	3 - COP2017 - Planning and protecting regions
Main location	Lille-Villeneuve d'Ascq
Doctoral affiliation	UNIVERSITE DES SCIENCES ET TECHNOLOGIE DE LILLE 1
PhD school	SCIENCES ECONOMIQUES, SOCIALES, DE L'AMENAGEMENT ET DU MANAGEMENT (SESAM)
Planned PhD supervisor	BLANQUART Corinne - -
Planned financing	Contrat doctoral - Ifsttar
Abstract One of the most tenacious myths in transport economics is undoubtedly the role structuring infrastructure. Indeed, it has long been accepted that transport exerts a automatic positive effect on regional and local economic growth and development. This direct causality has gradually been questioned (Bazin, Beckerich, Delaplace, 2006; Blanquart, Delaplace, 2009; Bonnafous, Plassard, 1974; Offner, 1993; Plassard, 1977, 2003; Vickerman, 1991), to give way to indirect causation or conditioned causality: the arrival of a new transport infrastructure would have an effect positive on regional and local economic growth and development if policies support are implemented, regardless of the structure and characteristics of the territory concerned (Blanquart, Delaplace, Poinsot, 2013). Indeed, if the systematicity of the structuring effects is criticized, because of the forgetting of the characteristics socio-economic aspects of the territory that this systematicity translates, provided that the strategies accompaniment seem to play an important role (Ollivro, 1997), illustrating the need for support the appropriation by the actors of the direct logistics and transport services offered by infrastructure (Blanquart and Delaplace, 2009). The expected effects of the infrastructure then become conditional, but the conditions of their appearance remain little explained. The nature and objectives of these support policies also remain indefinite. These debates are more topical than ever in France, with in particular the construction plan for the Seine Nord Europe Canal, which has been the subject of a declaration of public utility authorizing the start of work. It is a heavy investment, estimated at more than four billion euros depending on the technical options selected. The scale of investment in infrastructures, and their high degree of irreversibility, justify, if need be, to shed light on the question of their contribution to the development of the territories they serve. Equipment structuring an entire region, within a wide-ranging European river network, it is whereas the Seine-Nord Europe canal has short, medium and long-term economic effects terms. But without a theoretical representation of the infrastructure-development nexus, it is impossible to differentiate the gross effects from the net effects, i.e. to isolate the effects of a particular infrastructure among all the other factors likely to participate in the socio-economic development of a region, and in particular the strategies support (Blanquart, Delaplace, Poinsot, 2013). If work has shown that the role and importance of transport infrastructure in development are conditioned by the theoretical representation of development that is retained, the methodological limits approaches in force until now invite us to find other analytical reference systems. The thesis proposes to renew the link between transport infrastructure and development by mobilizing a new analytical framework derived from capability theory around the example of the Canal Seine Nord Europe. The results obtained show a difference in the capabilities of companies to use river transport, and ultimately the Seine Nord Europe Canal. Thus, the appropriation of the infrastructure by companies will be different, in the same way as the support policies that will be put in place to cause a modal shift from road to river.
Keywords :	Canal Seine Nord Europe, territorial development, transport infrastructure, capability theories, ecological transition

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