Adaptation strategies of Luxembourg's financial centre under pressure

The financial crisis has highlighted the vulnerability of International Financial Centres (IFCs). However, very little is known about specialised IFCs, in particular about the impact on their niche activities and the strategies they have developed to return to growth. This article addresses these questions by examining the case of Luxembourg. Firstly, the findings suggest that the increasing concentration of financial services companies has over time created agglomeration economies and contributed to making Luxembourg one of the few global specialist financial centres. IFCs such as Luxembourg are part of a new environment in which competitive advantage will increasingly be based less on regulatory issues and more on the diversity and quality of the services offered. Secondly, the evolution of the financial industry in Luxembourg suggests that a strategy of continuous innovation has been adopted to maintain the comparative competitiveness of the financial centre.

Sahara or Sahel? The fuzzy geography of terrorism in West Africa

Since the mid-2000s, terrorism has pushed the peripheries of West Africa into the news and the public eye. While the political implications of this phenomenon have been extensively documented, most commentators have adopted a zonal approach to terrorism in which the Sahel and the Sahara are usually confused. This paper assumes that this confusion dramatically highlights the failure of academic and common geography to think beyond territories in West Africa, and to move away from a ?sedentary? vision of West African societies. The paper contributes to an understanding of the geographical locations of terrorism in West Africa by showing, firstly, what the main reasons behind the current confusion between the Sahel and Sahara are. Secondly, we show that this confusion arose from a territorial vision of space, which has important implications not only for local economic activities, but also for our own understanding of the spatiality of networks in West Africa.terrorism; space; networks; Social Network Analysis (SNA); Sahel; Sahara; West Africa

The geography of innovation in the Luxembourg metropolitan region: an intra-regional approach

The main objective of the paper is to analyse the local determinants of innovation in the Luxembourg metropolitan region. We are particularly interested in the impact of the local milieu and characteristics of firms. Our paper addresses two specific research questions. Firstly, we examine the extent to which geographic space is a determinant of innovation for five intra-regional units based on an aggregation of municipalities. Secondly, we investigate whether innovation is dependent on accessibility to the mean centre. In both cases, we examine innovation propensity and innovation output using microdata from the Community Innovation Survey (CIS 2006) carried out in Luxembourg. The paper shows that space matters both in terms of spatial units and accessibility within the intra-regional context of Luxembourg. It provides, in particular, first evidence of a close link between the effects on innovation at the intra-regional level of firms? profiles and agglomeration externalities. Both favour innovation for firms from Luxembourg-City and, to a lesser extent, from the Suburban Area.intra-regional innovation; firms' profile; location factors; local polynomial regression; Luxembourg metropolitan region

Cross-border metropolitan integration in Europe (Luxembourg, Basel and Geneva)

This article questions the integration processes in three small cross-border metropolitan areas: Luxembourg, Basel and Geneva. By referring to an original analysis framework, it evaluates the nature and intensity of the functional and institutional integration and highlights the elements that structure the cooperation between the actors. The analysis shows that there is not necessarily a reciprocal link between the size of the functional area and the extent of the cooperation. Whilst no metropolitan-sized project is on the agenda in Luxembourg, the example of Basel and Geneva shows that the presence of a national border offers an opportunity to invent original forms of governance, increase the autonomy of the local authorities by different types of cooperation which transcend the institutional and territorial divides, and enable the international character of the metropolitan centre to be valued for what it is. In a context of global competition, these features represent an undeniable benefit.Metropolitan regions ; Governance ; Border studies ; Integration ; Europe

Spatial integration in European cross-border metropolitan regions: A comparative approach

This article analyses the process of spatial integration in ten European cross-border metropolitan regions. On the basis of three indicators, relating to flows of cross-border commuters, gross domestic product and the housing market, it suggests that spatial integration can be viewed as a process of convergence between distinct territories, resulting from the intensification of interaction between social, political and economic actors. Our results allow, firstly, confirmation of the hypothesis that the greater the economic disparities, the greater the level of interactions measured by cross-border commuting. Our work also shows that strong economic interactions have an impact on the cross-border integration of communities, measured by the proportion of residents based on the other side of the border. Finally, this article leads to three models of cross-border integration being proposed: by specialisation, by polarisation and by osmosis.cross-border; metropilitan regions; spatial integration; commuters; gross domestic product; housing market; Europe

Introducing the Spatial Conflict Dynamics indicator of political violence

Modern armed conflicts have a tendency to cluster together and spread geographically. However, the geography of most conflicts remains under-studied. To fill this gap, this article presents a new indicator that measures two key geographical properties of subnational political violence: the conflict intensity within a region on the one hand, and the spatial distribution of conflict within a region on the other. We demonstrate the indicator in North and West Africa between 1997 to 2019 to show that it can clarify how conflicts can spread from place to place and how the geography of conflict changes over time

3D hydrosedimentary models of the Loire Estuary using TELEMAC-3D-TOMAWAC and GAIA

Hydrodynamic