Annales de Géographie

Exhausted for a long time by the growth of Paris, Beauvais has for about 20 years been enjoying an economic and demographic revival. The paper begins with a description of the country and of its economy, and the state of the population at the end of the 18th century. Demographic trends through the 19th and 20th centuries are examined.- from English summary

Geography and Globalization. French Geographers facing the 1930’s Crisis To the contrary of what is generally thought about French geography during the 1920s and 1930s, that is, a triumphant geography set in its regional focus, this paper tries to present a different perspective. With the World economic crisis set in motion, the 1930s were a time when human geographers not only discovered some new objects, but also modified their patterns of explanation. The world as a new scale became indeed for a lot of geographers an essential part of their analysis. This quite paradoxical emergence of globalization in the geographic discourse allows us to reread the French geography’s history in its classical age. That implies to emphasize the role of the 1930s critical context in the opening up of geography to globalization.

Cet article se propose d'etudier les rapports entre activites de service et developpement regional en Suisse. Dans une premiere partie theorique, nous definissons les concepts de developpement endogene et d'activites de service. Une deuxieme partie, empirique, propose, a travers le cas suisse, de verifier les deux hypotheses suivantes : le secteur de service favorise le developpement des grandes villes ou sont concentres les pouvoirs economiques. Ce mouvement profite egalement aux villes moyennes et petites en tant que relais du pouvoir des grandes villes. Mais cette croissance masque une dependance qui rend toute forme de developpement endogene difficile, sinon impossible.

New economic activities and metropolitan restructuring : the case of the southern periphery of Chennai Chennai is one of the four important Indian “ megacities ” that have become centres of metropolitisation and it ranks 3rd as a federal economic power. As the capital of the most highly urbanized Indian state, Chennai is an interesting case study which offers insights for understanding of the impact of global forces and of new post-liberal development strategies for metropolitan restructuring. Thanks to the determination of the Government of Tamil Nadu to develop economic sectors such as computer science and automotive industries, as a result of economies linked with the reorganization of past activities across the agglomeration (chemical industry, iron and steel industry, textile and leather industry), and on account of a high standard of education and the existence of qualified jobs, the city of Chennai is now inscribed in the global movement. It is all the stronger in that it is the Indian megacity that has attracted the greatest number of direct foreign investments during the last few years. This growing internationalization, combined with incentive-based town planning policies, has furthered a specialization of localities along urban corridors. Such a strategy, creating from start to finish new industrial estates, special economic zones, teaching and research institutes as townships (small closed towns), takes part in the process of decongestion and reorganization of both economic and residential functions from the city towards the urban peripheries. This contributes to a polycentric type of urban development.

The urban land in Africa: between the informal and the rational. The Nouakchott case (Mauritania) Source of conflicts as well as of revenues, urban land has become the inevitable prism to understand the dynamics and mutations at play in the African cities. Through the example of the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, this article focuses on the actors’ strategies, for one part, and on the networks and links existing between politics and urbanization, on the other. Created in 1957, Nouakchott is today inhabited by one million persons. In this section of Sahara, urban sprawl leaded to a general anarchy in spatial use. Authorities have intended to control urbanization, notably by limiting land access. Several laws have been published but, actually, they are frequently ignored. People know the legislation, but they also learnt how to infringe it, in following a few codes and ways of doing. Misinformation and illegality are thus linked to the urban land question. At the end, it can be called a rational informal sector.

http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/geo_0003-4010_1996_num_105_588_21708

Extrait des Annales de Géographie, no. 356. 1957

Share breeding in Mexico. Land colonization and dynamics of an agrarian system in contemporary history Share cropping, a widespread practice before the revolution, which then was no longer talked about or was even denied during the process of agrarian reform, has been developing again in Mexico since the 1950s, in a revised form : cattle leasing. The resulting new social relationship has become characteristic of pioneer fronts of beef cattle breeding over a large portion of the tropical regions, particularly near the country’s Atlantic coastline, receiving higher rainfall and more favourable for pasture to grow. In contrast to the classic form of share cropping, characterized by a monopoly the large-scale property owners exert over land, this version operates under a system of reverse tenancy. Most farmers benefiting from colonization programmes possessed insufficient means of production and were compelled to call upon the large-scale stock-breeders to provide them with the cattle necessary to develop the land they were allocated, in exchange for payment of half the proceeds to the livestock owner. The spread of cattle leasing therefore reveals a certain continuity in the balance of power between the different components of the rural society, persisting beyond the agrarian reform. Land ownership has become a secondary component in these interrelationships, whereas control over capital is now the important factor and is the basis of the livestock owners’ hegemony.

Au-delà de la diversité même des définitions du risque, il est désormais admis que la mesure de l'insécurité alimentaire des ménages ruraux africains, à la fois producteurs et consommateurs, dans et hors du marché, est aléatoire et incertaine. Cette démarche comporte des choix conceptuels et méthodologiques décisifs : faut-il mieux sérier les composantes du risque ou les combiner ? Faut-il privilégier des indicateurs ponctuels de déficit, de difficultés d'accès ou de faible capacité ou s'efforcer de prendre en compte les dynamiques ? Quels biais chaque approche comporte-t-elle ? Quels en seront les destinataires ? Pour quel type d'intervention ? Les recherches de terrain montrent que le suivi de l'insécurité alimentaire, à la fois variable et récurrente, conjoncturelle et structurelle, gagne fortement à prendre en compte les temporalités décisionnelles des acteurs.

Critical analysis of a territorial management policy ( “Opérations Grands Sites”) This article offers a critical analysis of Great Sight-seeing Operations, a French land use planning policy to construct, establish and mark high heritage value for tourist areas. Since the beginning of the Eighties, environment French administration has leaded a policy to rehabilitate some protected sight-seeing intensely visited by tourists. Around 43 listed sites have been chosen in several tourist areas, on the coast or inland. In 2004, four major spots were officially selected as Great Sight-seeing of France because of their good environmental management. These Great Sight-seeing Operations aim at making local tourism development consistent with the preservation of undamaged landscapes. The criteria for the selection are first studied ; it thus shows an “official” geography of French heritage, whose relativity and malleability make the management of these operations long and difficult. Second, the sight-seeing operations are compared with other French landscapes and heritages protection acts : national and natural parks, UNESCO World heritage, etc. In this, the significance of those great projects of is better understood. At the end, it becomes possible to discuss the notions and improve the accuracy of the carrying capacity, of tourism flows management and of the links between tourism and heritage.

Cultural geography ? Not without a social approach Since the 1980s, a cultural geography has emerged within French geography. Benefiting from two trends of the human and social sciences in the last twenty years (the cultural turn and the return to the subject or the actor), this cultural geography is sometimes described as an alternative to the Marxian-influenced social geography that had appeared a few years before. This article intends to demonstrate that those two geographies are inseparable, and that in any geography the social dimension necessarily prevails over the mere cultural dimension. Every cultural fact appears in a social crucible and develops in a network of social and spatial relations — even if, in return, the cultural contents of existence shape the social and spatial contexts producing and expressing them. Cultural geography is not always immune from culturalism ; therefore, a cognitive and critical geography, both social and cultural, is proposed.

From Paradise to Dream Park, gardens in the Arab world : Damascus, Cairo, Rabat Evocation of Paradise on earth, Arab and Islamic gardens, organised according to well-defined precise rules, have reached the entire Western world and fueled its imagination ; it has also been a distinctive element of the cities in the Arab world. They are representative of a kind of “golden age” of the Arab civilisation. At the 19th century, a modernising movement in the cities, either wished or imposed by the colonizers, induced the public garden and induced in the urban organisation a clear rupture with the Arab landscaping tradition. The Western representation of the city, hygienist and rich of public gardens, became the model of a modern city. Having lost their modernity symbolic during the period of the enormous growth of the cities, public gardens were abandoned. Around the 1970’s/1980’s, they made a come back as green areas, new remedy for urban diseases. In this mutation of the vocabulary, they also lost their meaning as public space to become places for leisure time ; it went along the emergence of new types of leisure spaces, with a lot of equipments, paying, following the example of DisneyLand’s park concept. Those three stages in garden’s evolution correspond to three periods and three types of societies and symbolise a long-lasting process of lost of Arabic specificity of the cities.

Ways of operating in fieldwork practice How does one get access to data when operating through ethnographic immersion in a neighbourhood for months ? This paper builds upon an analysis of the transformation of political identities in former segregated neighbourhoods of Cape Town, South Africa, to uncover the constant, and yet untold, adjustments in theory and methodology of any research project on the ground. Between the participation imperative dictated from the top and the inherited political culture of self-organisation from below, the South African case-study reveals how ambiguous city-dwellers’ aspirations are and challenges normative understandings of democracy. Reading the production of scientific knowledge goes beyond the particularities of post-apartheid South Africa and questions questions the ethics and politics of fieldwork in general. The researcher is an acting member of the micro-local geopolitics he or she is investigating. Instead of seeking vain provisions against it, this article calls for a full recognition of the intimate relationships in the field as part of the scientific project itself. The principle of collective improvisation used in free jazz is a metaphor for an ontology of performing reciprocal relationships. Improvisation skills become a tool for listening to the Other, and an incentive towards an aesthetics and a poetics of conscious research, following Michel de Certeau’s “arts de faire” philosophy on the actual practices of everyday life.

Le rôle de l'océan dans l'évolution du climat à l'échelle de quelques mois à quelques années est devenu indiscutable. La meilleure illustration de cette action à long terme de l'océan sur l'atmosphère est fournie par l'étude réalisée dans le cadre d'un grand programme international, du phénomène ENSO (El Nino Southern Oscillation). ENSO est une oscillation météo-océanique à grande échelle qui affecte l'atmosphère de l'ensemble de la ceinture tropicale et peut-être de l'atmosphère globale et qui implique également les eaux superficielles de l'océan Pacifique tropical dans son ensemble. L'océan Atlantique tropical est également affecté par ce phénomène avec un retard d'environ un an. Les causes profondes de cette instabilité météo-océanique à l'échelle planétaire ne sont pas encore totalement élucidées. Néanmoins, ces évènements se déroulent généralement suivant un shéma identique. Normalement les eaux chaudes s'accumulent sur le bord ouest de l'océan Pacifique tropicale sous la poussée des alizés

Avoid or reduce deforestation to mitigate climate change : the REDD challenge For a number of years, Reducing greenhouse gas Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) has been the subject of debates and proposals within the framework of international negotiations for the treaty that will succeed the Kyoto protocol. This paper reviews knowledge on this emerging initiative which has a double objective : integrate tropical forests in the struggle against climate change and ensure that developing countries take part in international efforts for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Considering the differences between proposals formulated by States and the difficulties of quantifying deforestation and forest degradation really avoided, the paper reveals problems for the implementation of this initiative, which has a strong commercial connotation in the current context of financial and economic crisis.

From biodiversity to diversities : the territorial dimension of biodiversity Biodiversity has become a subject of major interest since twenty years, giving rise to scientifc works, international conferences and discussions. Fears concerning the decline of life diversity take a strong place in the current environmental stakes. Without denying the reasons that justify such a concern, this paper focuse on the territorial aspects of the topic. The naturalist approach seems partly inadequate to deal with the matter in a spatial and temporal point of view. Taking in account “natural” and social areas enable to demonstrate the relativity of the matter and the diversity of cases. This paper consider biodiversity partly as a result of social history and thus, as a temporal process with period of decline alternating with period of expansion.

Discontinuité géographique et particularités climatiques en Basse-Normandie//Geographical discontinuity and climatic particularities in Basse-Normandie M. Olivier Cantat, M. Laurent Brunet Résumé La prise en compte des facteurs géographiques locaux permet de préciser le contour des transitions climatiques déterminées à l'échelle régionale et sub-régionale. L'installation temporaire d'une station météorologique expérimentale a mis ainsi en évidence une continentalisation des conditions atmosphériques dans la vallée de l'Orne à son passage en Suisse Normande, secteur globalement frais et pluvieux. Un double effet d'abri aérologique est à l'origine de ce phénomène: abri régional (sous le vent des collines de Normandie) et local (vallée). Le but appliqué de cet article est d'établir une procédure simple pour extraire d'une base de données régionale la station au comportement climatique le plus semblable dans un secteur dépourvu de stations météorologiques pérennes. Abstract Local geographical factors allow to specify climatic transitions between different scales (regional and sub regional).

Fonctionnement et bilan hydrobiogéochimique du petit bassin versant forestier de Strengbach (Hautes-Vosges, France)

Public spaces and the environment in the urban policies of Paris and Berlin Since the 1970s, public spaces have increasingly become the instruments of urban environment improvement in European metropolis. Urban policies are currently mainly devoted to upgrading public spaces, either by modifying modes of transportation or by renewing the living environment. New modes of public action involve both local stakeholders and residents for whom these environmental issues are of great importance. But public authorities also aim for better coordination of institutional actors, especially those in charge of environmental matters. Confronting the case studies of Paris and Berlin, we demonstrate here the extent to which this trend may be qualified as truly European in nature, despite local differences. This environmental issues and the resulting public policies may sometimes conflict with other features of cities and their public spaces.

Le Biodôme de Montréal est un modèle des nouveaux types de jardins zoologiques qui ont émergé à partir des années 1980 et qui transcrivent un rapport renouvelé des sociétés occidentales, très largement urbanisées, à la nature. A travers l'analyse de cette institution ce sont les rapports entre l'homme et l'animal et plus largement la définition de la nature qui sont questionnés, laissant transparaître, au premier abord, un affaiblissement de l'opposition trop nette entre les catégories de nature et de culture. Cependant, plus profondément, il apparaît que les citadins cherchent surtout à se confronter à une nature exotique et sauvage, tout en restant loin des dangers et de la fatigue qu'imposent un vrai voyage. C'est donc une nature édulcorée qui est mise en scène et dont l'altérité même reste étroitement confinée dans un espace précis afin de maintenir valide la distinction entre l'homme et la nature.

The European Union intervention in regional development. The example of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region If the European Union regional policy and its effects at the international and interregional levels have been the object of numerous studies in the social sciences, and in geography in particular, its enactment at the lower levels remains less known. In this article, I look at how this policy became integrated into the Nord-Pas-de-Calais (France) regional process of constructing a public-private strategy of development. It lead to a specialization rather than a concentration of the European Community structural funds. This specialization was obtained by the conjunction of three elements : an intraregional zoning, which associated the zones most in trouble (determined by the region itself) ; a multi-annual program of financing, adjusted periodically to integrate as much as possible EU leitmotivs (innovation, competitiveness, environment) ; finally, a mobilization differentiated by territories, which reflects not only the nature of their problems, but also their degree of control of the EU ways of intervention.

Au Nord-Cameroun, entre le 8e et le 12e degrés de latitude Nord, l'étude des paléoformes et des sols conduit à admettre l'incursion périodique vers le sud, au moins jusqu'au plateau de l'Adamaoua, des influences climatiques semi-arides des régions sahariennes. Après les altérations et l'important cuirassement ferrugineux des dépôts sédimentaires et du socle au Quaternaire ancien, la formation de glacis d'accumulation et de glacis-terrasses s'est faite au cours de deux épisodes semi-arides principaux (Douroumien et Bossoumien). Lors d'une phase plus humide intermédiaire (Peskéborien) les matériaux aréniques des glacis et les alluvions anciennes ont donné naissance à des sols rouges fersiallitiques. L'entaille des glacis et le rajeunissement du relief ont été au contraire favorisés par un climat tropical sec à saisons très différenciées. Ces ruptures d'équilibre, suivies de phases à tendance aride, ainsi que les altérations anciennes plus ou moins profondes, ont laissé dans le paysage et les sols un héritage important.

An unobtainable land ownership negotiation ? The example of Mayo-Rey in Northern Cameroon In the most powerful Fula sultanate of North Cameroon, Rey Bouba, a boundary marking operation was inaugurated after 1996, on the disputed rural boundaries in a zone of coexistence between migrants and autochthonous communities. After eight years of boundary marking installation, led first by a Project, then a research unit (TERDEL) the traditional rulers stopped the process and ordered the markings under negotiation to be pulled out. In this way the traditional rulers have asserted their primacy over the land. The central administration is absent on land ownership affairs and the government is accepting withdrawal of the State, negotiated at Rey on the basis of some well understood electoral issues. Civil Society and NGOs are nonexistent. On the “technical” supervision side, SODECOTON, a parastatal firm, accused of being at the service of migrants, was not considered neutral in 2005. The Development Agency in charge of land ownership therefore found itself helpless in the face of the traditional rulers alone. All negotiation concerning secure establishment of land ownership hence seems to have become impossible.

L’un des aspects, souvent ignoré, des contacts des touristes des pays du Nord avec la population des pays du Sud est le développement de la prostitution dans les espaces mis en tourisme. Celle-ci est peu évaluée en raison de son caractère informel ; elle représente pourtant, aujourd’hui, l’un des critères décisifs du choix de certaines destinations. De nombreux gouvernements tentent, pour de multiples motifs, de corriger, de minimiser voire de dissimuler ce qui peut devenir une réputation. Mais ce phénomène n’a pas forcément que des conséquences négatives, si l’on se place d’un strict point de vue du développement du tourisme et ainsi d’une diminution possible de la pauvreté. L’étude de terrain menée à Nosy Bé (Madagascar) tente de montrer, dans un territoire qui veut aujourd’hui profiter de ses multiples potentialités, quelle peut être l’incidence du développement touristique sur la prostitution féminine.

CONTRIBUTION A L'ETUDE DES SURFACES D'APLANISSEMENT SUR LES HAUTES TERRES CENTRALES MALGACHES. - Resume. - Cet article est en fait une notice detaillee accompagnant la carte geomorpholo ique au 1/500 000 des Hautes Terres centrales de Madagascar, publiee par O.R.S.T.O.M de Tananarive. Les auteurs se sont attaches en premier lieu determiner les caracteres specifiques lies chaque niveau d'aplanissement, puis a essayer une regionalisation. En effet, d'une part chaque surface d'erosion presente des traits specifiques lies a la structure, a l'evolution morphologique et aux sols; d'autre part, on peut distinguer des ensembles regionaux dus a l'association ou a la preponderance de certains niveaux. On notera importance donnee aux cycles et reprises d'erosions recents dans l'explication des paysages au coeur meme des Hautes Terres.

The French geography of the call-center industry Call centers and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) well symbolizes the rise of an “information economy”. Like other IT-enabled services, call centers are often regarded as footloose. In fact, call centers take advantage from a large array of location factors, the most important being the availability of labor. The map of French call centers shows a strong, but irregular metropolitan pattern. A much finer analysis demonstrates that the closeness to Paris has been a strong location factor in the recent de-concentration process. In a first time, CRM firms have targeted medium cities in the surroundings of Paris, with a strong presence of universities and offering a well educated workforce. During the last three years, these labor pools went to saturation. Thus, call center operators shifted to smaller or more remote cities, often with high unemployment rates. In such places, call center location has become a major tool for economic development, particularly in those which suffered from recent industrial downturns. In order to attract call center-related investments, several local communities have established dedicated training programs and offer purpose-build, ready-for-delivery premises, to say nothing of other incentives. Nevertheless, “the driving effects” of CRM business are reportedly low. Spillover processes cannot be expected, because call center operations are highly taylorian and require, on average, low skills. Moreover, CRM investments per employee are small and easily movable. With respect to the rise of overseas locations, call center perspectives for sustainable, local development seem to be narrow. For local communities, focusing only on call centers is a dangerous bet.

Geography of movement, geography in movement. Mobility as a dimension of fieldwork in migration research This paper investigates the relation between mobility and fieldwork in geography. It is based on research on transit migration in the Central Sahara. Mobility is treated as the spatial dimension of fieldwork, as the opening of new grounds newly perceived which changes the kind of empiric data produced in migration studies. The paper aims to reflect on the mobility of the observer under two aspects : mobility in the field andmobility as fieldwork. Mobility inthe field, i. e. movement between different but related field-sites, helps to contextualise each research locality and each phenomenon observed from different angles. At the same time, mobility is in itself a “field-site”, a privileged moment of observation and discussion. As a consequence, researchers themselves need to become mobile in order to study migration from the inside and to grasp the fleeting and unstable social constructions that mobility produces.

The boundary between forest and savanna. The role of water-flows in western ivory coast. Because of historical factors, physical geography has long been too much analytic. Thus it could not join in the birth of vegetal ecology, which is botanists' achievement. The development of climatic geomorphology enabled to show another trend. It constitutes a first integrating element of the different divergent branches of physical geography. J.-M. Avenard's studies in the Ivory Coast go farther in that promising way. They are about bio geographical subject : the boundary between savanna and forest and they tend to determine some ecological conditions. The essential factor is the water-flow of soils, for the forest is more demanding than the savanna. But the processes are not simple. On one hand there are the water reserves of the soil which help the forest to endure an already long and intensive dry season. But on the other hand tree-roots cannot develop in a congested and asphyxiating soil, which expels the forest from some inundable plains. Now the water-flow in soils depends largely on many other physico-geographical elements : above all the climate, the geomorphological evolution, the lithology and the pedo genesis. J.-M. Avenard mastered this problem very well for he could exactly measure soil-humidity and he brought in many data which explain its variation as a part of the whole physical environment. His article is at the same time, according to the new orientation we give to the Annales de Géographie, a statement on an important problem and a method demonstration.

Forest-savanna boundary in middle Ivory Coast. An investigation concerning geomorphology-soils-vegetation relations has been undertaken in order to determine correlations between distribution of vegetable formations and environmental factors, while in the same time human investigations were trying to define man's relationship with natural environment. Various observations seem to prove that distribution of Forest-Savanna mosaic, in the zone of study, resulted mainly from the preponderance of geomorphological evolution and accordingly of the soils which are deriving from it, over the distribution of vegetable formations. On the other hand, the present progression of forest, which has been observed in many points in spite of influence of bush fire, is partly dependent on the substratum : unfavourable edaphic characters of savanna soils are putting off dynamism.

Whither cultural geography ? Cultural geography proposes an apparently innovative project but it actually raises a dual epistemological issue. First of all, is it a new field inside geography or a school of thought that contends to redesign the overall geography’s disciplinary layout ? The perspective of a “cultural geography” encompasses and endorses the ambiguity of the word “culture” in contemporary social sciences. Secondly, “culture” is predominantly used as a weak version of “society”, namely in English-speaking literature. Cultural geographers address societies but do not explicitly admit it. Have cultural geographers built fresh tools to explore the spatial dimension of these societies ? The answer to this question is not easy to give, even though the “cultural turn” has certainly helped social sciences to move forward in the understanding of social worlds. Two topics, which might seem peripheral, eventually turn up to be essential to enlighten the rationale of these hesitations. The first one, theoretical, is related to the possibility of a paradigm for social sciences that would pass over the concept of society. The second one can be seen as a practical output of the former. It affects the use of academic discourses that pretend fond “multiculturalism” on scientific arguments to legitimate communalism and reject a “society of individuals”.

Plutôt qu'une fin en soi, l'étude du tourisme doit être, pour le géographe, un moyen d'appréhender les effets de l'apparition d'un nouvel élément dans le complexe d'activités et de rapports de forces qui définissent une portion de l'espace et dans les systèmes de relations qui le structurent. Cet article a pour objet de proposer quelques réflexions sur ce dernier terme et une première approche typologique appliquée au littoral méditerranéen. A partir de trois séries de critères (degré d'occupation et plus ou moins grande vitalité des activités antérieurement à l'apparition du tourisme ; caractère spontané ou volontaire des équipements ; caractère ponctuel ou continu des implantations), trois types d'intervention du tourisme dans l'espace littoral ont été reconnus : — le type Costa Brava : un littoral rocheux, sans hinterland mais très articulé, aux nombreux petits ports précocement occupés, aux activités traditionnelles très diverses mais d'un dynamisme inégal, sans unité, mais dont les paysages, le climat, la situation sont particulièrement attractifs, est bouleversé par l'intervention spontanée du tourisme qui lui apporte, avec le désenclavement, une organisation et une unité fonctionnelles, mais compromet à la fois ses paysages et ses valeurs sociales et spirituelles ; — le type roumain-bulgare, où les équipements ont précédé la venue des touristes. Les « stations » (Mamaia, Les Sables d'Or...) représentent un type d'implantation ponctuel, rigoureusement fonctionnel, un espace-vacances à l'état pur. Mais elles ne modifient guère l'organisation antérieure de l'espace fondée sur le pouvoir de commandement des grands ports (Constantza, Varna, Bourgas) ; — le type Languedoc-Roussillon, où s'affirme la volonté de mettre en valeur, sur un espace continu, un potentiel touristique jusqu'ici délaissé, avec le souci d'entraîner l'arrière-pays dans cet effort de promotion régionale. Cette action concertée, dans le cadre de la politique d'aménagement du territoire, devrait aboutir à une organisation fonctionnelle et rationnelle de l'espace.

En France, le pacte civil de solidarité (pacs) permet depuis 1999 l'union entre deux adultes quel que soit leur sexe. Porté par les gays et lesbiennes auxquels il offre une reconnaissance symbolique et un début d'égalité des droits en matière de vie de couple, il s'est progressivement banalisé, comme en témoigne son succès quantitatif croissant (plus de 200 000 signatures en 6 ans). L'analyse de la géographie du pacs montre une diffusion à partir des capitales nationale et régionales vers tout le pays. Ce processus s'accompagne du maintien de singulières disparités spatiales à toutes les échelles, en particulier la place privilégiée de Paris et des Midis. Elles sont en partie explicables par le jeu de multiples facteurs sociaux, culturels et démographiques : il existe notamment une forte corrélation entre la concentration des professions intellectuelles du secteur public et le taux de pacs. La géographie de cette innovation sociale, incomplète en raison des lacunes de l'information (ignorance du sexe des pacsés), témoigne de la complexité des mutations actuelles de la société française, marquées notamment par l'émergence d'une nouvelle classe moyenne supérieure métropolitaine.

Après une présentation des facteurs de formation des tourbes tropicales, les principaux types sont décrits. Les formations associées (les podzols tropicaux) et leurs relations avec les tourbes sont examinées. La géochimie de l'ensemble de la chaîne de paysages est passée en revue ainsi que le devenir et la transformation des tourbes en charbons

Sur la rive arabe du golfe Persique, Doubaï est la seconde ville des Emirats Arabes Unis, après Abou-Dhabi, la capitale fédérale. Depuis une trentaine d'années, le devenir de Doubaï est lié à l'exploitation des hydrocarbures, directement, car l'émirat dispose des modestes revenus pétroliers de quelques gisements bientôt épuisés, et indirectement, puisqu'il profite, par le biais du budget fédéral, des immenses ressources de l'Emirat d'Abou-Dhabi. Mais Doubaï est aussi une cité-marchande, héritière d'une longue tradition maritime fondée sur la pêche perlière et la navigation commerciale, partie prenante dans la mondialisation comme centre de transit et de redistribution vers des horizons qui dépassent désormais ses liens traditionnels avec l'Iran et le sous-continent indien. Cet article s'efforce de montrer, sans celer les ombres au tableau, que Doubaï n'est pas une simple ville pétrolière du Golfe, Babel futuriste bâtie sur du sable, mais une métropole post-pétrolière, édifiée sur un projet économique clairvoyant qui intègre habilement le passé pré-pétrolier pour en faire un atout dans la compétition internationale.

Economic dynamics and territorial restructuring in a traditional industry in South India. Taking on the challenges of globalisation Like in other traditional manufacturing activities in India, the structure of the leather industry in Tamil Nadu is dominated by small-scale enterprises. This is a direct result of policies aimed at protecting employment and ensuring balanced regional development, within the broad framework of an import substitution strategy. However, the liberalisation of India’s economy in the 1990s has exposed its manufacturers to the stringent demands of increasingly global markets, while enhancing competition among firms and territories within the country. Within this difficult context, this article examines the restructuring of the leather industry of the Palar Valley, which produces largely for export markets, with an emphasis on local capacities to adapt to the increasingly stringent demands of globalised markets for leather and footwear. This analysis underscores the importance of local partnerships and territorial embeddedness for achieving competitiveness in this century-old industry organised in clusters closely resembling industrial districts. Indeed, over the last few decades, local firms have developed strategies based on comparative local advantages, which include solid roots in the local territory and social capital based on strong social and ethnic ties. By analysing the articulation of various spatial and temporal processes, notably the impact of industrial policies, the main objective of this article is to identify the social and spatial transformations that are redefining the rural-urban relationship and bringing to the fore new challenges.

Le lac Tchad est-il en voie de disparition ? Il y a soixante ans, le général Tilho a écrit un article publié dans les Annales de Géographie sur la possibilité de voir le lac Tchad sans une goutte d'eau. A partir des connaissances dont il disposait alors, il fit quelques prévisions. Utilisant toutes les données nouvelles recueillies au cours des soixante dernières années, les auteurs se sont efforcés d'apprécier les prévisions d'autrefois et d'en proposer quelques autres. La conclusion est que le climat n'a pas fondamentalement changé; un assèchement constant du lac Tchad ne semble pas à craindre, en ce sens qu'une seule année de fortes pluies suffit à ramener l'eau du lac au niveau normal. Toutefois, si l'homme ne se préoccupe pas d'un aménagement de l'environnement, on pourrait se trouver en présence d'un risque de disparition du lac.

Cette contribution est centrée sur l'activité égyptienne de l'architecte Auguste Perret, sur ses oeuvres édifiées ou documentées à Alexandrie, au Caire et à Héliopolis, ainsi qu'à sa postérité, en particulier à son influence sur l'oeuvre construite de Gaston Rossi.

Paris and french university system : myth facing realities During the past thirty years, changes in the French university map indicate that the place of Paris within the system has been altered. It concerns specialisations in training as well as the universities’ capacity to attract new students. Following these trends, the French Capital seems to have lost its leadership. But the picture is contrasted, given that the internal structure of the metropolitan area is composed of 17 universities. Paris is less the centre of the French university system than a self-contained entity. Indeed it has specific rules and its global attractiveness is weaker than expected.

Les javanais ont acquis une réputation de riziculteurs minutieux et enracinés. De fait, durant des siècles, ils ne quittent guère leur île natale; seuls les Bugis, les Banjar et les Minangkabau ont la réputation d'être de grands voyageurs. Ce n'est qu'au début du 20ème siècle que la mobilité des javanais s'accroît et c'est seulement après la seconde guerre mondiale que se développent des courants migratoires intenses. Certains dénoncent à cette occasion une volonté gouvernementale de "javanisation" de l'archipel bien qu'à y regarder de près le peuplement javanais ne soit significatif qu'à Sumatra, dans un nombre limité de provinces. L'analyse de la situation au Lampung, région de "terres neuves", démontre la complexité du phénomène : l'incidence des programmes de colonisation dirigée demeure faible contrairement à toute attente. Enfin, une étude à Java, dans la "Région Administrative Spéciale" de Yogyakarta, permet de remettre en cause un certain nombre d'idées reçues : la liaison entre hautes pressions démographiques et émigration est moins évidente qu'il n'y paraît, de même que le caractère inéluctable de l'expansion javanaise Outre-Mer. (Résumé de l'auteur)

Thèse--Fribourg.

Article sur la "Météorologie " provenant de l'Encyclopédie Méthodique, vol. 20, p. 451-477.