Contenu du sommaire

The Rockies of Colorado, natural environment and human life. The Southern Rockies are the highest part of the Rocky Mountain Range. Between 6 000 and 14 500 ft, they are divided in a vertical zonation of climates and ecosystems, from the semi-arid to perennial snows. Human settlement occured in the mid-nineties and developed through the stages of silver and gold rushes, ranching, and tourism ; it ensued in the construction of roads, railroads, dams and canals. The present economy mainly rests on mining (molybdenum), ranching, forestry and mostly on recreational activities. The description of two high mountain valleys emphasizes the functions of two urban settlements : Aspen, a famous ski resort, and Leadville, the highest town in the United States.

The Appearance of the Urban Fact in Northern Thailand. In an essentially rural region that is controlled by an hyper-trophied capital, Bangkok, which is located outside of it, small towns and small semi-urban centers have sprung up since the end of the second World War along with the development of commercial crops and a transportation network. The statute and administrative functions assume a predominant part in explaining the existence, distribution and differentiation of these urban and semi-urban communities. An analysis of the tertiary facilities (commercial, bank and urban facilities, postal activities) of the small towns, then of the small communities enables one to establish an urban hierarchy in which Chiang Mai appears easily at the head of the list. The study of countryside-town relationships discloses a reinforcement of the influence of these small towns on the surrounding countryside. Traditional urban real estate property continues to develop along with the exploitation of new lands. The commercial dissemination of agricultural products from the villages to the towns reinforces these ties, and the same is true of the daily migrations of peasants coming to work in the construction sites or small companies located in the towns. For a long time, the town was not clearly distinguished from the countryside ; it was an agglomeration of villages grouped round a chief. However, the growth of the merchant economy, especially since the beginning of the Twentieth Century, has brought about an increasing distinction between the urban and the rural, which is noted not merely in the morphology of the towns but in the revenues and way of life of their inhabitants. There is no structuralized regional urban network, but rather a scattering of urban communities, each town being only a relay station of the capital Bangkok, where all decisions are made and from which cultural patterns emanate.

The Geographic Distribution of Foreign Workers in Paris and Lyon Originating from Black Africa. — A survey conducted as respects two communities of African workers has inspired this article. A center in Paris has attracted Malians and Moslem Senegalese little marked by colonization. In Lyon, it is in particular the Guineans, Ivoryians and Camerounese, who for the most part au christian and understand French, who predominate. While in Lyon the workers are spread about in small groups, they are amassed together in large centers in Paris, especially in the popular quarters of the East. In the capital, Malians and Senegalese are isolated from the rest of the population. In Lyon, individual housing units enable those originating from the Coast to lead the European way of life that they have dreamed about. For better and for worse, they are able to find true possibilities for acculturation.

Schooling and its Consequences on Urban Demography in Black Africa ; the Example of Gagnoa, Ivory Coast. The relationships between schooling and urban demography have not as yet been studied in Black Africa. Still, the influx of school children has furnished in the past two decades increasingly large numbers of people to the main urban centers. Gagnoa, for example, the fifth largest city of Ivory Coast (36,000 inhabitants), has 14,109 pupils, the majority of whom were born outside the city. This large population of school children rejuvenates the age pyramid and increases the male-female ratio of it, with males predominating. The consequences of schooling can also appear at other levels. Thus, from the demographic point of view, the distribution of quarters is a direct result of the numbers of school children living in each of them. The case of Gagnoa, and this is true of other cities in Ivory Coast and in Black Africa, shows that the influx of school children is, for many urban centers, the first factor of demographic growth, well before the migrations of people of active age who formerly supplied the largest contingents of neo-citizens.