The territorialisation of industry in times of transition: ecosystems, infrastructures and hubs in the green hydrogen sector

Current evolutions of the relationships between industry and the state associate explicit objectives of industrial transformations for ecological reasons, a growing interest in sovereignty-driven interventions in industry, and the linkage of industrial development to social concerns. This paper examines these evolutions by analysing the territorial inscription of industry, its practical manifestation and its consequences. We speak of styles of territorialisation of industry to characterise the articulation of three components: the construction of an industrial sector, the design and use of policy instruments, and the material consequences of spatial interventions. Using the example of the nascent green hydrogen sector in France, we contrast three styles of territorialisation, which we label 'ecosystems', 'planned infrastructures', and 'hubs'. Each of them encompasses visions of the relationships between public and private actors, faces tensions and frictions, and has inevitable exclusion effects. We contend that the study of styles of territorialisation is a productive analytical entry point for understanding the politics of transition.