From Management Situations to 'Action-Territories': Lessons for Territorialized Policy. The Case of Territorial Farm Contracts in the French Departments Overseas./de la Situation de Gestion Au Territoire Actionnable des Enseignements en Matiere de Politique Territorialisee. Le Cas des Contrats Territoriaux D'exploitation Dans Les Departements D'outre *‪.‬

Abstract Although public action always uses the term 'territory', it has difficulties in integrating social issues cast in territorial terms. The territory, defined as a space which has a 'sense' and which gives a 'sense' to those who live in it and which acts as a space of coordination at the local scale between civil society and public authority, is the basis of the French agricultural law of 1999. Highlighting the multifunctionality of agriculture, the law proposes a new contract between the State and farmers through the CTE (Contrat territorial d'exploitation--Territorial Farm Contract) which is the tool of choice. It is constructed from the identification of agro-environmental and economic measures developed at the regional level and based on a diagnosis undertaken by project initiators within a local territory. Today, the Agricultural Sustainable Contracts (CAD--Contrats agricoles durables) have replaced these.