The local food movement has become a prominent force in the U.S. food market, as represented by the explosive expansion of direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketplaces across the country. Concurrent with the expansion of these DTC marketplaces has been the development of the social ideal of localism: a political and ethical paradigm that valorizes artisanal production and smallness, vilifies globalization, and seeks to recapture a sense of place and community that has been lost under the alienating conditions of capitalism’s gigantism. Supporters of localism understand the movement to be a substantial political and economic threat to global capitalism, and ascribe distinct, counter-hegemonic attributes to localized consumption and production. However, critics argue that localism lacks the political imagination and economic power to meaningfully challenge global capitalism, and that it merely represents an elite form of petite bourgeois consumption. While scholars have debated this issue feverishly, there is a dearth of empirical cases measuring whether or not actual local consumers understand their local consumption within the political and ethical frame of localism, leaving much of the discussion in the realm of esoteric theorizing. This study seeks to uncover whether or not local consumers interpret their local consumption habits within localism’s moral framework by using an original survey instrument to gather primary data, and conducting an exploratory quantitative inquiry.

Ce travail étudie l’évolution des politiques de défense et des acquisitions militaires du Qatar et des Emirats arabes unis (EAU) depuis les années 1990. Il cherche à évaluer la prégnance du rôle des déterminants extérieurs et intérieurs dans l’élaboration des stratégies de ces deux petits Etats du Golfe et s’interroge sur la raison pour laquelle, confrontés à des défis en apparence assez similaires, ils ont adopté des stratégies différentes. Tandis que le Qatar a privilégié son rayonnement diplomatique et peu ou prou délégué sa sécurité à ses partenaires extérieurs, les EAU ont quant à eux organisé leur doctrine militaire autour de la consolidation de leurs outils de sécurité et de défense intérieurs tout en veillant à rayonner sur la scène régionale et internationale par divers canaux souvent identiques à ceux choisis par leurs voisins qataris. La thèse montre que les mutations du contexte régional doivent être articulées avec celles du contexte international pour comprendre les dynamiques communes aux politiques de défense et aux acquisitions militaires du Qatar et des EAU. Puis, elle montre que ces déterminants structurels doivent être articulés avec des variables intervenant au niveau national (territoire, démographie) et infranational (perception et réseaux du Prince) pour comprendre les contrastes entre leurs politiques. Pour finir, la thèse interroge la pérennité de l’économie et de la sociologie politique de ces « petits Etats-Princes » en les confrontant à des reconfigurations endogènes et exogènes susceptibles de les faire évoluer. / This thesis studies the evolving defence policies and military acquisitions of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from the 1990s onwards. It seeks to assess the role of external and domestic incentives in shaping the survival strategies of these two small Gulf states and to understand why, while they were confronted with apparently similar challenges, they adopted different strategies. While Qatar has favoured its diplomatic influence and essentially guaranteed its security through its partnerships with external powers, the UAE have consolidated their internal security and defence tools while gaining regional and international influence through various channels which often were the same as those chosen by Qatari leaders. The thesis shows that the mutations of the regional context must be articulated with those of the international context to understand the common dynamics in Qatar’s and the UAE’s defence policies and military acquisitions. It then shows that these structural determinants must be articulated with variables at national (territory, demography) and subnational (the Prince’s perception and networks) levels to understand the contrasts between their policies. Finally, the thesis questions the sustainability of the political economy and political sociology of these “small Princes-states” by confronting them to endogenous and exogenous developments which are likely to make them evolve.