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The multinational firms are representative of the internationalization mouvement which is reorganizing the European territory. By locating subsidiary branches abroad, they create links between cities. They reveal then integration of the cities into a European urban system. The simplest approach consists in counting the number of foreign subsidiaries located in each city, which reveals their integration into the European system of multinational firms. The number of subsidiaries controlled by each city is an indicator of their dominating or subordinated position in the European urban system. A second approach, by the construction of a direct foreign subsidiaries exchange network between all cities, reveals which cities are in central position within the system. A third approach considers the indirect links of the internationalization of firms, and especially the intermediate cities which receive subsidiaries which themselves control sub-subsidiaries. This make appear three kinds of intermediate cities: the importing, the exporting, and importing-exporting. This study is based on a survey which was carried out in 1990 on a sample of about one hundred firms among the three hundred biggest firms in Europe (by their turn over in 1988).

This article examines the existing literature on large technical systems (LTS) and tries to apply some findings to the development of the car-traffic-system. Since there exists no study from scholars working in this field, I shall first present some theoretical elaborations from the LTS- discourse which offer defintions, properties and dynamics of large technical systems. Then I try to apply these to the car-traffic-systems, asking in what sense this system will undergo a radical reconfiguration. Therefore, I discuss three cases of empirical material: different systems of motive power, transit systems and attempts at automation via electronic road management. Several theoretical models are tried out: the system-builder-approach by Thomas Hughes, the interorganisatorical network approach by Bernward Joerges and the actor network approach by Michel Callon and Bruno Latour.

This paper discusses some issues regarding transportation networks and territory development, and gives examples of the relationship between the two within the context of Catalonia or the Barcelona Metropolitan Area. Empirical evidence and some principles of logistics efficiency permit us to formulate several conjectures throughout the paper about the interaction between transportation networks and regional development. To conclude, the paper briefly examines whether economies of scale in territorial planning are overcomed by some possible economies of integration.

This essay was supported by a research grant from the DATAR (the French national agency for regional development) who fixed its main aim as that of feeding discussion of the future of motorway and road systems with particular reference to the innovations which are expected in the telecommunications field. The first part is devoted to a panoramic view of professional thinking about the motor car and its infrastructure between the years 2000 and 2020. The second part provides a brief "state of the art" of current telecommunications oriented road research. The third part presents three opposable scenarios based upon options for road pricing and traffic information. In the fourth, final part, we sketch some consequences of long range probable change in road supply for urban and regional "master" planning.