Contenu du sommaire

This paper attempts to test the influence of the shape of the transportation network on the location-allocation models applied to human activities. Simulations are performed on hexagonal and square lattices of points. Several network shapes are considered. The p-median model is used. Our results show that the geographical structure of the network influences several aspects of the location-allocation results.

To link the notions of efficacity and justice (equity) to the actions of networks of cities assumes that we have first understood the conditions which produced this process towards alliance and cooperation, in itself voluntarily determined, between elected representatives and municipal actors, who have freely listened to each other in order to situate development within the context of a common project. Networks of cities may thus be understood on several levels. They contribute to allowing cities to be recognized as pivotal points in territorial development. They make it possible to optimize municipal management through an anticipation of changes which are going to affect collectivities (employment, for example), and the control of which becomes more efficient when taken outside of a strictly-defined area of expertise. It may also be observed that networks of cities constitute a stimulating context, on the regional scale especially, for actors looking for mediators to confederate their actions. The efficacity and equity of networks of cities vary in function to the degree of involvement of elected officials and the technicians of the cities concerned. This institutional proximity gives networks of cities a more structured "scale" than a project group, while at the same time assigning them a less rigid structure than a community institution. This article will try to show how networks of cities contribute to defining a more efficient and equitable territorial "webs" based on the linking together of various scales which seeks to overcome traditional urban hierarchies.

The expression"network of cities" here refers to French experiments in policies of development and territorial planning encouraged by the French agency DATAR since the end of the 1980s. The notion of network is taken here as a process, the mode of functioning of a given social group. The relationship which is set up between the mayors in different experiments clearly shows that what we have here is a network of public actors. Contrary to "clubs" of cities which develop around one specific problem (such as, for example, cities linked to the French high speed trains [the TGV]), networks of cities give greater priority to the problems of territorial development concerning one portion of the urban technical network, most often by transgressing political-administrative boundaries, in order to encourage an eminently territorial development. In this sense they are in fact related to territorial dynamics, based frequently on a strong conciousness of "place". Networks of cities are based on what local officials want; because of this, they correspond only partially to the idea of equity put forward in territorial development. In fact, even if the territories concerned by this policy are only "marginal" or peripheral, only officials who want to can benefit from all the advantages. In the same way, supported by the officials of the cities-centres, the networks of cities often imply much more than just community location. It is clear that this state of things does not make it possible to consider this type of action as "fair" in the sense of equitable. On the periphery of national territory, in regional « markets » or at the doors of large European development spaces, networks of cities take their place especially with respect to those forms of territorialized organization whose boundaries they transgress, namely politics and administration. Moreover, especially with respect to medium-sized cities, networks of cities expect to modify the perception of urban networks and their hierarchy.

The current transformation of European territories is largely the result of international movement towards outward expansion. The principal actors of this expansion are large corporations which, through numerous locations in various countries, contribute to linking together the different spaces into a common economic strategy. The space in which these corporations carry out their actions is not, however, neutral for the orientation of their localation. The cities and the networks which they constitute in fact form an important constraint in guiding investments, and the distribution at the present time shows that urban systems hold the variables for the acceleration of this process. Using two studies carried out in 1990 and in 1996 in the largest European corporations, we shall show the propensity of urban systems to encourage this type of

In this article we are interested in the role of productive networks in territorial dynamics. We shall first explain how to theoretically construct the existence of productive networks starting with various notions of externality. We shall then evaluate the input and limits of a few "exemplary" evolutionist models, which according to our analysis represent a rigorous attempt to formalize the dynamics of productive networks. On these bases, we shall show that territorial dynamics result from the interlinking and interaction between territorial and a-territorial productive networks (with the possible effect of substitution between these two types of network). This analytical grid raises important problems concerning socio-spatial equity, thus calling into question the habitual practices used in territorial planning and development.