Abstract
If the social contract occupies a central place in contemporary debates in planning, the notion is never spatialized, nor really anchored in a reflection on space. Starting from this observation, which it takes the opposite view, the article formulates a double hypothesis. On one hand, the social contract would be a spatial notion in itself, which, consequently, would make of the notions attached to it categories that are also spatial – such as justice, (particular or general) interest, or even the social compromise. On the other hand, the major breaks in the regimes of actuation of the social contract could be explained by the spatial break in the socio-economic dynamics of societies and territories – which the article proposes to observe and discuss with the passage from Fordist planning logics to post-Fordist planning logics.
JEL Codes: A12, A13, H19, N92, N94, O21, P11, P14, Q58, R52, R58.