French Support and Work Assistance Establishments (Esat) In the Face of the COVID 19 Pandemic: The Role of Territory and Proximity in Economic Adaptation to the Crisis

This contribution focuses on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on French support and work assistance establishment (ESAT) based on interviews conducted with managers of institutions located in rural and urban areas of the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region (France). In order to situate the ESAT in their national context, a first section is devoted to recalling the genesis and functioning of this system, which was set up to promote the social and occupational integration of workers with disabilities, whose originality lies in the articulation of a medico-social logic with an economical logic. We then try to show how the ESAT have organized themselves to provide medico-social support for workers with disabilities despite the obligation of distancing. Then, analyzed through the prism of territorial anchoring and the concept of proximity associated with it, we will focus on the impact of confinement on the economic balance of these establishments to show that the health crisis has less affected the establishments in predominantly agricultural vocation established in rural areas than those, more oriented towards industrial subcontracting, located in urban areas.