Regional reforms in France and Tunisia. Theoretical and methodological elements to identify seen territories

Abstract

France and Tunisia has experienced in 2014-2016 an important revision of their
administrative organization. France has almost divided by two the number of its
administrative regions and Tunisia has planned the creation of a new regional level
based on the aggregation of the existing units. New names, new borders, new
administrative center… These transformations concern not only spatial planners and
policy makers. They are also enhanced in the perception of territories by their inhabitants. And, it is therefore of utmost importance to catch the perception of regional
divisions by people before, during and after the transformations. Our research focus
on preliminary survey realized on samples of undergraduate students of geography
in France and Tunisia. The results indicate firstly a great diversity of proposal, despite
the small size of our samples. But it is possible to observe some common trends in
the choice of borders and/or linkages between territories.