A French revolution: technology management in the aerospace industry. The case of Toulouse

The recent evolutions implemented in the French aerospace industry have been labelled as a French Revolution in the paper. They illustrate the shift from a national – regional logic towards a global – local one as nexus of economic and technological development. The case of Toulouse, in the south west of France, which can be considered today as the European capital of the civil aerospace industry, will allow to grasp the different dimensions involved of this process: technology management, organisation, territories. The transition from a regional system of production to a local system of innovation in Toulouse exemplifies the dynamics raised by the globalisation of the contemporaneous economies.

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