History for a territorial project: the example of the “Pays Cathare”

Abstract

The territorial label “Pays Cathare” appeared in the early 1980, in a moment of crisis of modernity, structured around a cultural unifying concept: catharism. Its goal would be restructuring the local space in the French Department of Aude through a specific cultural promotion. The local construction of a territorial identity is based on the public discourses which are the basis in the decision making processes. The territorial ideology appears, therefore, as a set of meaningful discourses involving a particular space to present it as a unifying territory with balanced expression. This territorial process creates easy communicable representation by using the sum of all the spatial actors involved. This territorial ideology lies behind the geographically marked political discourse, giving sense to the space and time projects and practices.

Keywords: local administration, tourist image, lived territory.