Contenu du sommaire : Objectifs et champs d'étude.

For a reflection on research in demographic and social geography. Daniel Noin expects «Espace-Populations-Sociétés» to be a major contribution to the necessary broadening and deepening of the fields of research in demographic and social geography, rendered possible by the exploration of new subjects and especially by a dramatic change of technique and an opening towards other disciplines that are more advanced than geography in theorization and modeling.

Epistemological reflections towards a geography or employment and unemployment. For a long time, geographers have disdained theoretical formalization. However, without it, geography can neither integrate the corpus of social and economic sciences nor keep its autonomy. Christian Vandermotten and Jean-Pierre Grimmeau lay the foundation of a geographical theory of the labour and unemployment market. An area of reflection about a fundamental problem of to-day's society.

Activity and work, comparative approaches concerning men and women: methodological reflections or the link between productive system and family structures. Annette Langevin uses the work of the group «Articulation système productif et structures familiales : approches comparatives hommes-femmes» to put forward certain methodological and theoretical reflections on the study of female labour: dymamics of the socio-matrimonial and economico-professional course partition of the labour world according to sex, linkage between production and reproduction, mechanisms of replication of the dichotomy between men's and women's social status.

The ageing of the French rural population: a demographic geographic and social phenomenon. The considerable increase in the number on elderly rural people, and especially of the very old, is an alarming indicator for the future of many small rural districts. Paul Paillat takes note of the geographical extension of the phenomenon of depopulation and ageing of the French country-side. He expresses concern for the very aged districts where, socially, the ageing process has become a phenomenon in itself and a problem which requires solutions adapted to regional characteristics.

Rural population and renovation: country planning and participation of the population in Walloonia. The «interstitial space» of the country-side and the rejection of towns now have new and positive aspects. A new rural planning - global in scope and carried on in direct and continuing dialogue with the concerned populations - is being tried in Walloonia. «Organizers» play a key role in pilot programmes for «rural renovation», based on the involvement of the population in the decisions affecting its collective future.

Spatial mobility: a fundamental social process. Society could neither function nor evolve without people's movements in space. The urban world of contemporary industrialized societies particularly requires a fluid and multiform mobility, Michel Bassand and Marie-Claude Brulhardt advocate a general scheme of analysis which combines the five necessary conditions to global apprehension and comprehension of spatial mobility: interdisciplinarity, recognition of the irreductibility of the macro social level (society, space ...) and of agents' level, examination of the factors and consequencies of the flows, systematic approach to spatial mobility, recognition of the interdependance between mobility and spatial organization gnition of the irreductibility of the macro social level (society, space ...) and of agents' level, examination of the factors and consequencies of the flows, systematic approach to spatial mobility, recognition of the interdependance between mobility and spatial organization

Twenty-five years of immigration to European industrial countries. The author draws a retrospective picture of the major migratory movements in industrial Europe since the second world war. Movements of refugees and economic migrations due to the rebuilding of the European economies have marked the fifties and the sixties. However, the economic slump following upon the first oil crisis has somewhat changed the conditions of international migration towards European countries. With this change of conditions, the characteristics and the problems of this immigrant population have been transformed.

Demographic transition and mobility of the population in Tropical Africa. The questions of population play an important part in the process of development of the Third World. With the example of Tropical Africa and two themes, Henri Nicolai points out the complexity of the problems. Tropical Africa is engaged in a process of accelerated demographic growth: Why is this growth accepted and even desired? Can one properly ask whether the demographic transition theory is applicable to Tropical Africa? There, the mobility of the population is considerable and traditional. The author underscores the plurality of the types of migration and their importance in the process of demographic decompression by insisting on three types: rural exodus and urban immigration, pioneer migrations, and «rural-rural» migration in coastal regions.

Spatiotemporal variation in the decline in infant mortality in Western Europe. The authors present a summary of the social and spatiotemporal evolution of infant mortality in Western Europe, during the XlXth and XXth centuries. They recall the importance of certain periods during which the infant mortality rate started an irreversible decline. However, social and regional disparities remained throughout this general movement. Consequently, the authors propose to interested scolars two types of analysis of this phenomenon: an extensive analysis as a first approach, followed by a phase of more intensive research focusing on certain populations.

Social segregation: questions of terminology and methodology. A brief summary of the origins of the concept of segregation reveals how delicate it is to apply this notion to the study of the forms of social divisions of space in contemporary French towns. The article emphasizes the dangers of confusion among several distinct subjects and different levels of analysis which are implicitly linked together by the notion of segregation. The article also mentions the methodological difficulties of quantitative study of social segregation. Nevertheless, the article points out that the notion of social segregation does have certain merits, including its stress on the importance of the cultural dimension of the cleavages of social space and of the retroactive effects that spatial forms exert on mentalities and behaviour.

Introduction to social geography of frontiers. After having recalled the significance of the previous works on the subjects of pioneer fringes and actual political frontiers, the author suggests that henceforth geographic reflection be directed more towards an attempt of formalization and modeling of frontier spaces.