pp. 293-317

The aim of this article is to explain the successive processes of constructing and deconstructing geographic proximity and collective identity that characterized the brief history of « Silicon Sentier », main locus of the « net economy » in Paris during the time of the internet bubble. We refute the understanding that Silicon Sentier was the result of a multitude of mutually independent individual decisions to set up in business there linked to the economic characteristics of the territory, showing instead how the mimetic processes that played a role in the making of these decisions and how they were aggregated brought about the emergence of a norm for where to locate one’s business ; that is, a territory bringing together a significant number of sector actors and conferring legitimacy on them in the eyes of the environment. Moreover, the nature of these mimetic processes makes it possible to illustrate and analyze the stability characteristics of the district.