The Interplay of Timescales in Territorial Projects: the Example of the ‘pays’ of Libournais and Périgord noir (Aquitaine)

Abstract

The pays are territorial projects set up by local actors in order to define a development strategy. They are grounded upon an intercommunal logic that takes into account inherited territorial specificities, thus making time a key dimension. The present paper focuses on the interplay of timescales in two pays of the Aquitaine region: Libournais and Périgord Noir. We first show how past, present and future are interwoven in these projects through storytelling and staging of the territories in the discourse of local actors. Then, we analyze the plurality of timescales in the project dynamics. Beyond the timeline of the project, an other and far more complex time system emerges from the multiplicity of actors involved, thus contributing to the transitional nature of the territorial
projects.

Key words: territorial projects, timescales, local actors.