L’Espace géographique 1/97

Without summaries


Valérie GELÉZEAU. Renewal for moon villages in Seoul: rebuilding the city and setting socio-spatial segregation. (1 tabl., 3 fig. 2 phot., lexique)

The evolution of SeouL’s cityscape has, in recent times, been characterized by a rapid increase in the construction of residential apartment complexes. So-called Urban Renewal is one interesting aspect of this evolution, and is the result of the mass housing policy initiated by the public authorities. Urban renewal, as examined in this work through several particular «Cooperative Redevelopment Projects», contributes to the disruption of the original urban fabric, as the old homes and residential establishments are destroyed to make room for the new high-rise apartment buildings. Urban renewal thus reveals the dynamics of the city's extension, as well as the mechanisms ruling the making of the cityscape. The socio-spatial consequences of urban renewal are also important : this work concludes that a gentrification process in the redeveloped central areas of Seoul is occurring, where the urban poor are displaced to more peripheral urban fringes by the demand for high-density housing for the more affluent.


Abdelkrim MOUZOUNE. Algiers: urban conflict and new territorial ecogenesis. (3 fig.)

The greater Algiers area has been in a state of socio-spatial destructuring and restructuring since 1990. Having become a place for the expression of political territorialities and dissymmetric religions, its space has been broken down into anisotropic territories where Islamists and the State confront each other in order to impose, through symbolic and physical coercion, new spatial orders related to their plans for society. Its ecogenesis is expressed in opposing territorial dynamics whose objective is to dominate the functioning of the city and the habits, behaviour and points of reference of its inhabitants.


Philippe GUILLAUME. From white to black… Essay on a new segregation in the centre of Johannesburg. (3 tabl., 3 fig.)

The processes of residential racial desegregation in certain parts of South African cities, especially Johannesburg, preceded by several years the official abolition of separate living areas. In the centre of Johannesburg, different stages and various spaces, setting for the institution of new social relationships bringing changes in their use and their perception, can be brought out. The current tendency is one stage away from the Whites giving rise to a new method of segregation, putting an end to hopes of conviviality and new social relationships in these areas.


Morgane LABBÉ. Ethnic statistics in the Balkans: the use of censuses. (4 tabl., 3 fig.)

Ethnic censuses statistics collected contain significant inconsistencies: definitions and classifications differ by date and country, individual respondents often provide contradictory responses, as a function of their immediate situations. While unreliable in the first degree, these provide a precious, albeit indirect, source for the history of the State in this part of Europe. The article applies these considerations to an analysis of Greek, Bulgarian and Yugoslavian censuses, paying special attention to the case of the Macedonian populations.


Christine VOIRON-CANICCIO. Shapes, discontinuities and space divisions. (5 fig.)

Morphological theories and methods have called into question the primacy of the continuous over the discontinuous, of the regular over the irregular, of the quantitative over the qualitative and also of the algebra over the geometry and the topology. They have contributed to revive the geographical thought about discontinuity, edge and limits concepts. They have encouraged geographers to explore the potentialities of morphological analysis methods. The interest of an image analysis method based on mathematical morphology is presented. Three ways of dividing up the same space, the region of Marseilles, are proposed.


Stéphane ROCHE. A new view of space and its management. Case studies from France and Quebec. (3 fig.)

The problems associated with the incorporation of GIS in spatial dynamics and in the thinking of local government give rise to certain questions about the role of GIS in territorial management. The thesis presented here uses a process of exploratory research based on case studies from France and Quebec. Its principal objectives are to show why the analysis of these problems represents a rich and interesting field of investigation for geographers, and how a geographical approach can shed light on these problems.


Yves JEAN. The changing countryside and the prospects for small rural schools. (1 fig.)

The crisis of rural life and the school crisis represent some of the most fundamental challenges for society and are the subject of many political decisions: child education and citizenship learning, the future of rural life. Rural areas are often presented as areas in crisis, to be revitalised. The crisis, is it economic or one of identity? Are these areas evolving towards a unique spatial model or, on the contrary, are we witnessing growing spatial and social differentiation requiring the implementation of separate policies? At a time of intercommunity and mobility, faced with communal dissipation, what can the rural community do, particularly in the field of education?


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Last modified: February 5, 1997