ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes to trace the genesis of this process of economic opening. Drawing on the analytical frameworks developed by Alain Tarrius or Michel Péraldi (Péraldi 2001; Tarrius 2002), we start with the idea that the globalisation of multinationals and states comes with a ‘globalisation from below’, which is perhaps more determining in terms of socio-economic transformation, regional integration and changes in North-South relations. For all that, this second type of globalisation does not break with the societies and spaces in which it is embedded. Rather than speaking of ‘informal spaces’, to even hybrid and changing ones (Azaïs and Steck 2010), we prefer, following Pliez, to speak of ‘discreet spaces of globalisation’ (Pliez 2007) that gradually transform the social and urban fabric.
