Research
Doctoral dissertation,
2009
"Networks of cities and networks of innovation in Europe: the
structuring of the European system of cities through research networks
dedicated to converging technologies" Supervisor: Prof. Denise Pumain,
University of Paris 1/UMR Geographie-cités
Keywords: urban systems, networks of cities, innovation, Europe, EU's
Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development,
converging technologies, NBIC (nanotechnology, biotechnology,
information technology and cognitive science)
...Poster
Member of FOCI project 2008-2012
(ESPON European Program, FP 7)
"Cities and urban development are a focal point of current territorial
development policy. Against the background of the Lisbon
Agenda’s aim of growth and jobs, cities are seen as the main
potential motors for the achievement of the set goals, which was also
acknowledged in EU Cohesion policy documents for 2007 – 2013,
including the Community Strategic Guidelines, as well as the
Territorial Agenda and the “Leipzig Charter on Sustainable
European Cities”, complementing the Territorial Agenda by
focusing on the issue of sustainable cities.
This project shall thus analyse the current state, trends and
development perspectives for the largest cities and urban
agglomerations within the European territory. It shall identify the
driving forces of urban development which are the most relevant for
understanding urban evolutions and offer scenarios for the development
of Europe’s cities leading to alternative policy options."
...Read
more
Member of Harmonie-cités (ANR) : Harmonized data bases for urban dynamics and activities in different
type of systems of cities in the world
"The ranking of cities, as measured by their relative
population size in
the world, is rapidly changing, because of emerging countries
development and time lags in the urban transition. In the same time,
networks of relationships of all kinds are growing between cities
through globalisation. As a result, cities become more interdependent.
The future of one city is more and more constrained by its relative
position in cities networks. Models are based on observed regularities
in these processes for predicting trends in future urbanisation.
However, they are often not very conclusive and even lead to divergent
expectations, because of the difficulty of international comparisons of
urbanisation processes: the settlement patterns vary from one country
to the next as well as the forms of political and economic organisation
of cities; over time, cities increase their population and overall
their surface, their activities are transformed and the spatial range
of their networks expand. These processes render difficult the
dynamical analysis of cities weight and attraction. They explain why
there are so many differences in the statistical definitions of urban
entities, as well as in the measures and models that are proposed for
describing the evolution of urban systems."
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more
Member of two working groups of the GDRE Spatial Simulation for the Social Sciences (S4)
GAME (Geographical analysis and modelling for evolving Europe) :
"The purpose of the GAME group is to provide interfacing for work in
progress and team projects with a view to reciprocally beneficial
interaction and development of a research network eventually capable of
rapid response to European requests for proposals. We propose to focus
on two main issues: regional convergence in Europe, and metropolis
development (including considerations of networking and competition
with other possible form of “polycentrism” that
might be advanced by means of determined policy-making)."
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more
SPANGEO (Spatial Networks in Geography) :
"The project aims at designing and developing operational
methods to model and represent multilevel spatial networks in a way
adapted for geographical purposes. A first collaboration between UMR
ESPACE, LIRMM and University of Montreal (on multilevel representation
of the air passenger traffic worldwide network) has produced a very
significant contribution to model and visualize spatial networks"
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more
Other research interest : Optimal Location
Network location models, especially location problems in the public
sector
...Read
more (in french)
In progress
Scientific collaboration with
Claes
Anderson from the Chalmers
University of Technology (Göteborg, Sueden).
Abstract of my Doctoral
Dissertation
Technological innovation has acquired in Europe, as in the rest of the
world, increasing strategic importance in economic competition and it
plays also a crucial role in the structuring and dynamics of the
settlement systems. In what extend the innovation process impacts the
structure of the European system of cities?
This doctoral dissertation implements new data and tools in urban
geography for studying processes, into the European systems of cities,
that underlie the structuring and evolutions of European funded
research networks dedicated to converging technologies. Converging
technologies are known to be at the origin of the future innovation
wave expected to emerge by 2020. More specifically, this dissertation
aims to examine the spatial diffusion of knowledge spillovers between
European cities. Knowledge spillovers determine the future change of
cities that may occur during the rise of the new technological wave.
According to a harmonised definition of European cities, the
dissertation looks at how the interconnection of European urban systems
in a supranational system of European cities, for innovation
activities, is strongly marked by cities' initial positions in their
respective national contexts. However, dynamic processes that occur in
the system of European cities reveal an increasing trend for larger
cities in catching up knowledge spillovers. This trend shows the
reinforcement of metropolitan patterns of European urban system through
the integration of cities in the European scale for innovation
activities. All in all, this thesis allows underlining the paradox of
innovation specialized urban networks which are "free" with regard to
the geographical constraint even at the European scale, but these kind
of networks are also strongly forced in their forms of accumulation by
the pre-existent structure of the system of cities: they only modifying
marginally the pre-existent structure of the systems into witch they
evolve.