Introduction: proximity relations in the 21st century
Résumé
In a time of major changes, brutal crises and even greater threats to human activity and its sustainability, the notion of proximity is emerging as a refuge value, fostering permanency in human relationships and people’s ties to their territories, a guarantee of quality and fluidity in relationships, of trust and shared values, as well as embeddedness into local cultures, and communities of belonging. This paper presents the history of the notion, the main topics of research, the grammar of proximity, and explores the various usages of the notion of proximity in various fields of research.