LE GRAND ENTREPOT. An emerging storage industry: market places, economic organisations and networks – LE-GRAND-ENTREPOT

Based on work on the emergence of "free zones" (Mercier, 1997, 2017) from industrial-commercial “grey zones” (Azaïs, 2014), we hypothesise that the storage function plays a crucial role the organisation of what some economists call the "warehouse economy" (Porter M., 1947; Gereffy G. and Korzeniewicz M., 1994). As they combine the rational management of stocks, the flexibility of employment and the multiscalarity of circuits, these zones are privileged space-times for understanding the ongoing changes in transnational economies.
The purpose of this project is to show the major strategic role of the warehouse as a reference space and centrality of production systems.
We want to conduct this research:
1) At strategic industrial or commercial locations that this economy reactivates or reinvents
2) From commercial channels, which particularly illustrate the complexity and mode of deployment
3) Lastly, we want to focus on the networks of actors who find there a particular identity and the labour organisation modes that they value.
4) In these networks of actors, we want to pay more particular attention to those who, coming from the popular cultures, contribute to this warehouse economy at the end of the chain by bringing "rejects" and surpluses to dedicated markets.