Comparaison du positionnement de la métropole Aix-Marseille-Provence dans les réseaux mondiaux d'entreprises avec des villes comparables

Ce troisième rapport met ces deux aspects en perspective en comparant les spécialisations économiques ou les rayonnements géographiques observés pour la métropole AMP, à un échantillon de villes constituant une sorte de benchmark

Pouvoirs et attractivités de la métropole Aix-Marseille-Provence dans les réseaux mondiaux d'entreprises multinationales

En phase de construction politique et institutionnelle, la métropole Aix-Marseille-Provence (AMP) peut déjà être considérée comme un ensemble urbain cohérent pour son positionnement dans la globalisation des entreprises multinationales. Cette cohérence constitue un enjeu tant du point de vue local, que pour l'ajustement des politiques d'attractivité et de planification permettant de renforcer les synergies de ses pôles et de renouveler son économie dans la concurrence européenne et mondiale. Les concurrences et complémentarités qui se développent entre les villes se situent en effet aux niveaux des aires d'influences fonctionnelles des villes et non au sein leurs délimitations administratives, souvent transcendées par les interactions locales entre acteurs

Position de la métropole Aix Marseille Provence dans les réseaux mondiaux d'entreprises multinationales

La construction de la métropole Aix Marseille Provence (AMP) vise à améliorer la cohérence et la complémentarité de ses territoires. Promouvoir la métropole ne doit pas seulement considérer les communes indépendamment les unes des autres, mais les aborder comme un ensemble constituant bien davantage que la somme de ses parties grâce aux synergies entre les différents acteurs publics et privés. L'attractivité internationale est un des aspects de la promotion de la métropole qui profiterait de cette meilleure cohésion. L'étude vise à évaluer le positionnement international et les forces et faiblesses de la cohérence de la métropole pour son rayonnement dans les réseaux des entreprises multinationales

An Alternative Approach to the Calculation and Analysis of Connectivity in the World City Network

Empirical research on world cities often draws on Taylor's (2001) notion of an 'interlocking network model', in which office networks of globalized service firms are assumed to shape the spatialities of urban networks. In spite of its many merits, this approach is limited because the resultant adjacency matrices are not really fit for network-analytic calculations. We therefore propose a fresh analytical approach using a primary linkage algorithm that produces a one-mode directed graph based on Taylor's two-mode city/firm network data. The procedure has the advantage of creating less dense networks when compared to the interlocking network model, while nonetheless retaining the network structure apparent in the initial dataset. We randomize the empirical network with a bootstrapping simulation approach, and compare the simulated parameters of this null-model with our empirical network parameter (i.e. betweenness centrality). We find that our approach produces results that are comparable to those of the standard interlocking network model. However, because our approach is based on an actual graph representation and network analysis, we are able to assess cities' position in the network at large. For instance, we find that cities such as Tokyo, Sydney, Melbourne, Almaty and Karachi hold more strategic and valuable positions than suggested in the interlocking networks as they play a bridging role in connecting cities across regions. In general, we argue that our graph representation allows for further and deeper analysis of the original data, further extending world city network research into a theory-based empirical research approach.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures, 2 table

Two metropolisation gradients in the European system of cities revealed by scaling laws

Urban systems share with other complex systems constraints on their dynamics that are revealed by pervasive structural features, among which scaling laws. Scaling laws are relationships between cities’ attributes and their size (here measured by their population). When the relationship is non proportional with exponents larger than 1, scaling laws indicate the relative concentration of some urban functions at the higher levels of urban hierarchies. Superlinear scaling thus reveals the metropolisation trends that are produced in the urban system, according to our evolutionary theory perspective, by the hierarchical diffusion of innovation waves. Considering the current urban changes linked with the globalisation processes as an ‘innovation’ that is likely to diffuse hierarchically in urban systems, we analyse the relationships between 25 indicators expressive of their position in globalisation processes and the size of European cities (356 largest functional urban areas of the 28 European Union member states plus Switzerland and Norway). When summarised in a single metropolisation factor, we expected to find a unique superlinear scaling relationship that would reveal the hierarchical structure of the unifying European system of cities. We instead identify two distinct metropolisation gradients for each of the Western and Eastern subsystem that we interpret according to the delayed globalisation process in the latter. This provides a demonstration of the usefulness of scaling laws for summarising stages in the process of hierarchical diffusion of innovation in systems of cities

Metropolization and polycentrism in the European Urban system

In the time when Europe needs to strengthen its territorial cohesion and its global competitiveness, this chapter questions the integration and unity of the European urban system inherited from the long-term history as well as from the shortest-term division and reunification occurring during the second half of the twentieth century. First, we recall problems linked with the conceptual definition and delineation of cities and specify the inherited socio-spatial framework. We then detail the significant evolution of the European urban system during the second half of the twentieth century and in the beginning of this millennium due to two main processes of social and economic transition. Analyzing the concentration of activities in specialized cities enables to find metropolization processes following two different qualitative modes dividing Europe between Eastern and Western countries. Then, we discuss the question of polycentrism at different scales in connection with European policies

Urban Resilience Discourse Analysis: Towards a Multi-Level Approach to Cities

This study aims to understand the current state of research in urban resilience, its relations to urban sustainability and to integrate several distinct approaches into a multi-level perspective of cities comprising micro, meso and macro levels and their interactions. In fact, based on the meta-analysis of nearly 800 papers from Scopus from 1973 to 2018, we show that urban resilience discourses address micro and meso levels, considering shocks of bottom-up origin such as natural disasters. In contrast, the regional resilience approach addresses meso and macro levels (regional and global scales), considering shocks of top-down origin such as world economic crises. We find these approaches complementary and argue that in order to expand the urban resilience theory and overcome its limitations, they should be combined. For that purpose we propose a multi-level perspective that integrates both top-down and bottom-up dynamic processes. We argue that urban resilience is shaped by the synchronicity of adaptive cycles on three levels: micro, meso and macro. To build the multi-level approach of dynamics of adaptive cycles we use the panarchy framework