Contenu du sommaire : Varia

The aims of this paper are to examine recent trends in the populations of small and medium sized towns in non- metropolitan regions of the Developed World, to explore the dynamics which lie behind these population changes and to discuss views on the way in which the patterns are thought likely to develop over the next few years. The general context to change is first outlined with reference to successive waves of urbanization and counter-urbanization. Then, a more detailed appraisal is made of popultion change, taking into accountfactorssuchasthe regional context, location and size of towns. Migration is shown to play a growing and dominant role in development, as small and medium sized towns have grown largely due to the forces of déconcentration. This is turn has helped change the demographic structure of these settlements, as wel as their function. Many of these towns hve become commuting satellites for larger urban centres, leading to the increasing blurring of the functional distinction between the urban and the rural in non- metropolitan regions.

This article looks at the marginalisation of traditional regions of aluminium production resulting from the globalisation of the manufacturing system. Industrial plants provide the links between a local area and a transnational firm. They have played a key role in structuring space and in territorial development. Plant dosures have plunged local areas into economic recession, leading to reconversion, but this action now needs to be seen in the context of a wider process of redevelopment. The case of LArgentière-la-Bessée shows how this commune of the upper Durance region has based its redevelopment essentially on a cultural project, although without completely rejecting its industrial heritage.

After the Chinese invasion of the Spratley islands in 1988, and the withdrawal of the Vietnamese troops from Cambodia, ASEAN gradually realized that it had become a possible next target of China's will to extend its sovereignty in the South China Sea. Too weak and divided to resist militarily against Beiging, the Association chose to adopt a diplomatic line of resistence. Vietnam, for geopolitical reasons, also chose to become a member of ASEAN and rapidly was admitted into the regional grouping, to the surprise of many observers. However, if Vietnam and Singapore developed a cultural and geographical regional concept that could undermine China's claims to the South China Sea, this concept does not seem to appeal to other member countries, because of a still very weak collective consciousness.

The study of a whole set of phytoclimatic transects surrounding the Western Mediterranean in Morocco, Portugal, France and Tunisia leads to the theory of hydro- climatic thresholds of vegetation. This may explain the transition of mediterranean to peripheral (atlantic or arid) flora. The biological implications of such thresholds can be compared with those of the temperature threshold of forest vegetation related to altitude or atitude, and also possibly with those of the precipitation threshold of tropical vegetation, shown indirectly by the remote sensing of photosyn- thetic activity. Hydrous thres- hod, indicated by changes in vegetation, do not always coincide with zonal modifications of the seasonal rainfall regime. In contrast, as has been shawn in dynamic climatology, orographie analysis plays an essential role in their precise location.

Although the relationship between political action and space is often affirmed it is apparent that the nature of this claimed link as well as its different forms and meanings are rarely examined. This article puts forward a theoretical approach to the relationship space/policy based on the hypothesis of the fundamental role played by image in this matter. From this observation, the author suggests a series of concepts which facilitate dealing with the question of the spatial dimension of urban policies.

In this paper, is described the law of métropolisation as a model of growth, produced from an harmonized data base about towns and cities in the world ;the measures concern 25 000 agglomerations (42,5% of the world population - 2,27 milliard of inhabitants) taken at five different periods (1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990). Two main results are given. In the one hand, results and answers to the questions of the urban growth are presented. On the other hand, it shows the interest of an inductive method (from fact to the law). The accumulated and complete data gathered at the world scale and identifying all the possible space levels, even within the smallest (200 m more or less) allow to hold the two links which, in the long length duration, seem to resist to the disorders of history and geography, the local and the global.

Nomadic space is often looked at as a production territory, limited by major ecological constraints such as aridity. This definition is unadequat because it does not take account of the social and spatial organization of society. To improve the concept, it is necessary, therefore, to observe internal social relations (between nomads) and well as external relations (with the sedentary population). A three-scale analysis shows no concrete boundaries between social and ethnic groups but rather relationships based on complementarity. This paradigm could be applied to "modern" societies, characterised by their high level of mobility.

Four distinct steps lead from metropolitan employment structures to social strata ; the relationships are not direct. Therefore changes in the labour market do not affect directly, nor in a linear waythe social structures of households and social division of metropolitan spaces, as demonstrated in the case of Greater Paris overthe most recent intercensal period. These mediations have not only a theoretical dimension, but also a methodological one.

The French perfume industry has experienced changes in both its structure and location. Paris has become the showcase for an industry for which the production centers have been concentrated progressively in the 'Cosmetics valley' in the region of Centre between Eure-et-Loire and Loiret.