An examination of the two sets of case studies reported in chapters 5 and 6 shows that the difference between them are sufficient to require that one should exercise due caution when mounting comparisons. Nevertheless, whilst these differences may restrict the possibility of a detailed, point-bypoint comparison, they also help to suggest certain reflections on the possible links between the process of mobilisation and the nature of the locality.

It should first be noted that the decisions studied are not exactly of the same type. The contribution of the French team dealt with mobilisation movements of a reactive kind, i.e. those which opposed a specific type of decision linked to large-scale public works projects. For its part, the British team studied a protest movement opposed to a socio-economic decision and an organisation whose activity was directed much more positively towards the defence of a cause: the use of the Welsh language.

No doubt this difference in the nature of the decisions analysed goes a long way to explain why, in France, mobilisation against public works was, in three cases out of four, purely local. Proximity to the problem played an essential part, and this may help to explain why the movements studied appealed to so few people. The number of people who were potentially concerned in any direct way was, by definition, limited.