This paper studies the construction of a French competitiveness cluster (“pôle de compétitivité”). We question the appropriation by the actors of the public policy regarding French competitiveness clusters, by proposing a new interpretation built on the Theory of Social Regulation (Reynaud, 1989). This framework considers the public policy as a control regulation, and the effort from the actors to seize this cluster policy as an autonomous regulation. This work is based on a qualitative research conducted from January 2010 to March 2012 and takes the form of a case study analysing the history of the French cluster iDforCAR . This approach helps to clarify the emergence and the construction process of a French competitiveness cluster by showing the appropriation of the public policy by the recipients of this national cluster policy. The uniqueness of these clusters is then illustrated, each cluster being built from singular problems that give rise to a singular project.
