Spatial Information & Communication Arrangements: A contribution to territorial intelligence

In a society marked by information technology, local territories are subject to development that is increasingly shaped by top-down mechanisms, such as the global economy and sustainable development paradigms. The question then is to determine how, in such a context, these territories can also promote endogenous development that makes sense for local communities. By developing our research in the field of territorial intelligence, we explore the possible roles of the geographic dimension within Socio-Technical Information and Communication Arrangements (STICA) at the scale of inter-municipal authorities, especially to support mediation between heterogeneous actors. Our paper demonstrates that spatial representations, as STICA media products, offer a range and variety of functionalities which to date have been largely underutilized. We present an example of STICA implemented in the Thau territory (France) in order to produce a new territorial understanding and group dynamic based on local ecological knowledge