Contenu du sommaire

In a strict definition, a settlement system could not be considered as a technical system, as it has neither official operator nor designer. However, settlement systems in national territories all over the world share strong common properties in their spatial and hierarchical organization; they also obey common laws of transformation, as shown in empirical world-wide comparisons. These systems seem to be the only stable solution found by societies to inhabit, control and develop territories. A historical review of their conceptualizations in social science will emphasize the technical efficiency of settlement systems in covering territories, in networking places, and in managing the evolution of territories, through competition between places for innovation and adaptation. We will also analyse the possible effects of the more explicit organizational strategies which are emerging, and see under which conditions they might replace traditional implicit strategies, without losing the sustainability which has characterized until now the self-organized, complex settlement systems.

Defying criticisms and forecasts, the use of the automobile is still growing remarkably. It has been established that this growth is dependant upon a veritable system combining many sions: public and private, material and "immaterial", mobile and immobile, technological and human. The automotive system has been described as a fabulous public transportation system, in which every user brought his car... We will show how this system, in a better way than others, did in the past, does now, and will in the future allow for various and new adaptations of human territories. We will conclude that being such a universal territorial adapter is one of the keys of the success experienced by the automobile throughout the world.

Deployed technologies are expressed in terms of widespread networks of hierarchical organizations. Their presence or prospect may evoke fears of (and hopes for) social dependence. Combining the perspectives of organizational networks with insights from studies of large technical systems provides a basis for considering the potential for risking the political legitimacy of those involved and the challenges of institutional constancy in democratic society.

Since the 1920s, public authorities, lawyers, and economists have all been involved with the organization of network industries. The study of the current process of deregulation, in the light of past experience and with a distinction between large scale networks and urban service networks, raises new issues relating to three theoretical fields: industrial organization, institutional economics and political science.