Gouverner la reconversion industrielle dans le Haut-milanais : interrogations sur les processus de représentation et de défense des intérêts territoriaux

In a community study carried out for two years and half in Legnano (2008-10) we investigate the government of its industrial conversion. The first section justifies a sociology of a small town, and plea for a glance closely linking political and economic dimensions of urban transformation. In the second paragraph we retrace the map of the elite who played a major role within three major urban regeneration programs. We used both positional and reputational methods. The final section focuses on the governance mode, distinguishing between decisionmaking and the representation of territorial interests. We highlight a certain capacity of the local government to collect and select requests and interests arising from the territory, and to structure the coordination between local authorities and the main economic actors. At the same time, however, the representation of these interests at higher levels is delegated to segmental groups characterized by strong internal solidarity. A certain level of opacity of the representation of territorial interests at the regional level raises some questions relating to democracy and accountability.