Socio-economics of proximity

In 1993, Revue d'Economie Regionale et Urbaine published a special issue on Proximity Dynamics in which several scholars proposed a first distinctive approach between geographical proximity and organized proximity to provide clearer explanations on the spatial dimension of economic activities. The aim of this paper is to suggest a new typology based on the latest development of sociological economy. First, our analysis is based on drawing a distinction between spatial and socioeconomic proximity. Secondly, we have divided the socioeconomic proximity into two sub-categories, focusing on resource-based proximity and then on coordination proximity which include relational proximity (social networks dimension) and mediation proximity (institutional dimension). Finally, we will highlight the interrelations between these forms of proximity and the key-role played by the embeddedness and decoupling processes.