54

The diversification of regional economies has long been a leitmotif of regional development policies and is receiving renewed academic attention from geographers and economists. This paper develops a political approach to diversification by showing that social actors are likely to generate collectively, from the same activity and in the same region, various diversification projects in a more or less conflictual manner. Bifurcations in diversification trajectories are explained in terms of the dynamics of the political work (framing, instrumentation, and alliance) carried out by actors playing with the opportunities offered by their institutional context (sectoral and territorial). These theoretical propositions are tested by comparing two cases of emerging aquaculture in peripheral maritime regions (Brittany, Maritime Quebec). JEL Codes: D78 - L78 - O13 - O25