ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to demonstrate that the active presence in Montreal of the ‘civil actor’, that is of organisations rooted in a social movement of socio-economic reconversion, has helped to establish a model of metropolitan development that can be distinguished from other North American examples. It examines the issue of reconversion and emphasizes the role of civil action in defining a territorial sphere of economic development. The chapter aims to describe the opposing actors and to the social actors’ specific choices to strive for a form of reconversion that associates social aims with the fight for jobs. It illustrates the type of development action using the concrete example of the actions taken to thwart plant closures in the southwest borough of Montreal. The Montreal model can be distinguished by the active presence of social movements, which have helped to shape a mode of governance in which the social actors play a key role and guide collective choices.
