This paper tries to shed some light on the process by which local communities are emerging as social counterparts of economic globalisation. It is assumed that the emergence of local communities is not an instant result of globalisation. According to the author, such a process is embedded in a much wider transformation of society including the crisis of the nation-state which was the main territorial mode of management of social relations under fordism. Local regulation arises as a result of collective actions, of a new kind of social movement supported by a wide range of local actors. This explains the variety of forms and delays which can be be seen in the process of structuring of local development and local regulation.