6533b81ffe1ef96bd1278d2a

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Metropolises stability vs. change

subject

description

In everyday language and even in some scientific work, the term “metropolis” evokes nothing more than a very large city, a focus for all that is good — and bad — about urban life. The vast literature on metropolises and metropolization, especially in Europe over the last 20 years, shows that things are anything but straightforward. Population alone is probably not a necessary condition and obviously not a sufficient condition to characterize a metropolis. Somany phenomena are associated with this term that, like Lacour (1999), we may wonder whether this diversity is evidence of just how rich or just how poor the concept is. Producing a meaningful definition is indeed a challenge (...)