In a context of the increasing internationalization of the economy, the interactions between the local and the global become dominating in the way of policies, and therefor the territory takes an uppermost level in their definition and analysis. The local initiatives of development, the policies of decentralization, changes in traditional activities, the creation of great geopolitical and economical regional entities, the strategies of firms establishment, etc., are in the same way new parameters with a territorial basis which is necessary to include in the economic, social and political analysis.

The program CREA intends to study the spatial dynamics and the transformations of territories for a recent period. This period covers the implementation of structural adjustments policies and the rise of the liberal model. Far from the macroeconomic analysis, which searchs for the global balance between nations, it seems relevant and essential to take an approach based on the territory and on the multiscaling and multifactorial point of view for the problems of development.

CREA works on the five Andean countries (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela). It is based on three main programs :

• The treatment of next census of the andean countries, almost expected in 2001. By comparison with the works realized by the program ORELLANA since 1995, this program will allow understanding the tendencies of the spatial dynamics. It can be realized thanks to an approach at a local, national and regional scale, but always rely on the most fine administrative entity: the municipalities.
• Research programs on specific regions, which are characteristics of contemporary economic changes. AIDeR is a multiscale and multifactorial research program on the question of territories management and the interactions between is the local and the global, from a development point of view.
• A methodological research program on spatial analysis, structure and dynamic models, use of multiscaling and multifactorial information for the analysis and definition of development policies.