Contenu du sommaire

Joel A. TARR, The Municipal Telegraph Network: Origins of the Fire and Police Alarm Systems in American Cities. The municipal telegraph is one of the technologies that constituted the infrastructure of the emerging networked city in the second half of the nineteenth century. As a communications improvement, it helped in overcoming the city's fragmentation and aided the municipality in dealing with crises of fire and social order. Municipal adoption of a fire alarm telegraphic system was often related to fire department reorganization in a centralized and bureaucatic direction. , "\he fire-alarm telegraph not only improved the ability of the municipal government to fight fires but helped reinforce bureaucratic control over the firemen. Large cities adopted the new technology at a rapid rate. In contrast to the fire alarm telegraph, municipal adoption of the police telegraph was relatively slow. This reflected not only a slower pace in municipal bureaucratization of police functions but also the different nature of these functions compared to fire fighting. Police, in contrast to firemen, were likely to encounter a variety of situations calling for responses not communicable by a single signaling mechanism. In addition, the telegraph was limited as a device to enforce more bureaucratic control over the beat patrolman - a deficiency corrected by adding a telephone to the police call box. These cases suggest that the city presented a different context for technology adoption compared to the private market and that only powerful social and political pressure could compel the adoption of the new systems required to modernize city service delivery.

Pascal GRISET, The development of intercontinental telecommunications in the twentieth century. The development of international communications, which gained momentum from the mid-1800s, constituted major strategic stakes, much coveted by the large powers. Based exclusively on underwater cables until the beginning of the 20th century, intercontinental telecommunications thereafter developed, utilizing a doubletechnical system which consisted of both cables and radio. In place of the technical strategy which had oriented the activities of the telecommunications companies, came to be substituted a more commercial strategy which upset their very identity. After a period of rather heavy competition, the market nonetheless reorganized itself at the end of the 20s. Under the leadership of AT & T, this type of regulation was reinforced during the 60s and 70s, whereas the development of telecommunication satellites should have brought about changes in the distribution of market forces. Recent institutional developments would seem to be challenging this international order, opening a new era of competition.

Michel BOISVERT, Retailing and network economic analysis. For geographers, retail network operations are dominated by accessibility conditions between customers and sales outlets and by the hierarchical structure of retailable goods and services. With respect to the latter, positive externalities, also known as spatial affinities, play a crucial role. For economists, competitive conditions within and between networks need to be spelled out if a proper understanding of retail dynamics, both in temporal spatial terms, is sought. Accordingly, negative externalities are to be accounted for, especially the impact of new shopping facilities on land values and rental fees in nearby retail areas. This paper discusses at some length each of these propositions and suggests ways in which they could be generalized to any networking system. Several insights relating graph theory to such basic concepts as hierarchy, competition and externality are also brought to bear.