Exception devices as laboratories of globalisation. The case of the qualified industrial zones in Jordan [Des dispositifs d’exception comme laboratoires de la mondialisation : le cas des zones industrielles qualifiées en Jordanie]

Industrial Export Processing Zones (EPZs) have taken many forms around the world, with equally diverse contents. However, they all refer to the same principle that is to exempt a defined area from the common law in force at the national level, in order to allow low-cost production. This article aims to contribute to the discussion over the role of EPZs in economies, based on the case of the Qualified Industrial Zones (QIZs) in Jordan. We first present the EPZs as a globalized apparatus with various forms of organization, whose model continues to evolve and spread internationally. We then study an application of this model, through the case of the QIZs in Jordan, focusing on the effects of derogation to common law on the organisation of production and work within them. We also question the atypical mode of governance of these zones. This article shows that despite the exogenous and heteronomous nature of economic activity within them, QIZs constitute a pilot scheme for economic – as well as migration and territorial management – policies in this country. A special position that results precisely of the fact that these zones have been freed from the common regime.