Maintien d'une filière dominante ou projet de territoire : le cas du sucre à la Réunion

摘要

This research work proposes to explore the paradox of the massive support for the Reunion Island “sugar cane” channel in a context that today appears to be structurally unfavourable, in particular when looked at under the two principal trends:- on the global level, the current evolution of international commercial rules relative to the sugar sector compromise the long-term durability of the current support layout of the channel.- on the regional level, the spatial dynamics reveal social strategies contrary to the protection of a 30 000 h cane cultivation surface and to the promotion of a productive agriculture.In front of this type of questioning, the geographer's point of view is at first to consider that what takes places on the ground expresses the strategies of the actors. The study leans upon this hypothesis in the proposal for a revision of the regional spatial dynamics and their signification in terms of social strategies at different organisation levels. In making a call to tele-detection, to spatial analysis, to modelling, to social surveys, to typologies, this study shows that spatial dynamics constitute a pertinent study point of evolutions and of aspirations of the Reunion Island society. Today, this society expresses strategies and practices disconnected to the sugar project, legitimising and underlining the pertinence of a re-interrogation of the currently privileged agricultural development axis.