6533b828fe1ef96bd1288530

RESEARCH PRODUCT

L'idée de région et le fait urbain The idea of region and the urban fact

subject

description

Bien que la region soit un concept multiforme, voire omniforme, le decoupage regional est le cadre privilegie de la pensee spatiale et de l'action territoriale. Or la moitie des etre humains du monde, et plus des trois quarts des europeens, habitent dans une ville. Les villes produisent plus que proportionnellement a leur poids demographique, et concentrent les activites economiques de haut niveau, particulierement la production de haute technologie, les sieges sociaux, la finance et les services aux entreprises. Dans l'economie globalisee, les performances regionales semblent etre soumises a celles des villes, et les interactions economiques regionales, nationales et mondiales sont principalement le fait des villes. Ce papier examine le decalage entre d'une part la pregnance du concept de region et du decoupage regional et d'autre part le role dominant des villes dans l'economie. Le biais regional a des sources profondes et durables, theoriques comme empiriques. Mais meme si la region cache la ville, elle reste un cadre territorial incontournable. / Though the region is a multiform or even omniform concept, the concrete region is the privileged framework of spatial thought and action. Now half of the human beings in the world, and more than three quarters of Europeans live in cities. Cities produce more than proportionally to their population and concentrate high-order economic activities, especially high technology production, headquarters, finance and producer services. In the global economy, regional performances appear to be depending on city performances, and most regional, national and world economic interactions are urban interactions. This paper examines the gap between on the one hand the prominence of the concept of region and of the regional division of space, and on the other hand the dominant economic role of cities. The regional bias is deeply and durably rooted, theoretically as well as empirically. Even though the region hides the city, it remains an inescapable spatial scale.