21

The Pôle agroalimentaire de l’Isère (A municipal agri-food industry body for the French department of Isère) is an association that aims to relocalize local industry links in high demand, and also seeks to develop more efficient industry connections. The organization was created by public bodies and chambers of commerce, with private stakeholders joining more gradually. Its coordinators work to provide territorial intermediation they deem necessary for this relocalizing process.This case study will highlight the necessity and efficiency of this public territorial intermediation. With local players cautiously holding back in bottom-up territorial initiatives and public-entity-enforced top-down programs being rejected, public territorial intermediation initiatives thus appear as a compromise and a realistic third option for local-level development. However, such initiatives are not simple facilitative tools, the catalysts for processes that could develop spontaneously. Faced with diverse possible trajectories, they work on specific scales, select stakeholders, and guide actions. Driven by projects, public territorial intermediation creates trade-offs between the search for efficiency and the desire for inclusion. Its success hinges on the permanent preservation of a dialog between all stakeholders.