Mutations et ressources de territorialisation de l’espace transfrontalier Meuse-Rhin sur le temps long : vers une métropole polycentrique transfrontalière ?

Since WWII the cross-border issue has been at the heart of the European project. New territories are being created, each of them reacting in specific ways to crises and territorial changes. The cross-border area Maas-Rhine encompasses 3 major cities (Maastricht, Aachen and Liège). It has been at the center of the territorial transformations of North-Western Europe as capital of the Carolingian Empire, territory of the Principality of Liège as well as one of the cradles of the industrial revolution. Like other former industrial basins, it now faces metropolization. Over this long period, interrelationships between its cities were born which influenced the paths of their development. Throughout history, territories have taken different routes depending on their respective abilities to integrate into a process of resilience. The capacity of resilience depends on the mobilization of the territorial capital. This thesis describes the history of the territory of Liège within the cross-border area and aims at identifying the attitudes and the positioning of the different actors during the crises that deeply transformed the territorial system (feudal, proto- and industrial, metropolization). The outcomes illustrate the complexity of relations inherent in cross-border areas and highlight the importance for the actors to seize the territorial capital that has been accumulated in the long-term so as to be able to project into new relations with the other territories of the area.