Sustainable Geography

Roger Brunet was Professor at the Universities of Toulouse and Reims in France, then Director of Research at the CNRS in Paris and worked for the Intergéo laboratory and the public interest group RECLUS in Montpellier. He was the founder of the international scientific journals L'Espace géographique and Mappemonde, as well as the originator of the concept of the chorem.

• Preface xiiiAuthor Biography xixPART 1. GEOGRAPHICAL SPACE PRODUCTION: SYSTEMS AND LAWS 1Part 1. Introduction 3Chapter 1. Geography: the Hard Core of a Social Science 51.1. The geographical question 51.2. Geographical space is produced 61.3. The reasons for the production of space 81.4. The organization of space 101.5. The logical field and the idea of a system in the production of space 131.6. The environment and the memories of the system 141.7. Geographical figures 161.8. Scientific practice 181.9. Conclusion 20Chapter 2. The Geon and Energy of the System 232.1. Populations and working forces 262.2. Resources to actualize 282.3. Information as a source of negentropy 302.4. Production means and organization of space 332.5. The place of the capital and its distribution 352.6. The cybernetics of the system 382.7. Back to A 40Chapter 3. Geographical Fields as the Environment of Places 433.1. Cardinal fields 443.2. Planetary fields 453.3. Cultural fields 463.4. The effects of exposure and attraction 473.5. Fields and geographical distributions 49Chapter 4. Laws of Geographical Space Production 514.1. Geographic logic and the law of profit 524.2. Propositions of laws 534.3. Environment in systems 57Chapter 5. Sense of Distance 595.1. Revelation of the distance 595.2. Distance measure 615.3. Ruptures of the distance 635.4. The represented distance: isolation and entrenchment 655.5. The distance and difference 675.6. End of distance? 70PART 2. BROKEN SPACE 73Part 2. Introduction 75Chapter 6. Discontinuities and Thresholds 776.1. Discontinuity theory (1965) 776.2. Discontinuities and catastrophism 796.3. The region and discontinuity 846.4. Back to the discontinuity (1997) 866.5. Three examples of discontinuities in the geomorphological processes 89Chapter 7. Territory Retrenchments 937.1. The pure and the wall 947.2. Retrenchments at the center 967.3. Separated peripheries 997.4. Folds and double folds 1027.5. From retrenchment to res publica 104Chapter 8. Antiworld and Alienation 1078.1. Alienation 1078.2. Antiworld 108Chapter 9. Free Zones in the International Division of Labor 1179.1. The territories of the antiworld 1179.2. The complexity of the concept of international division of labor 1199.3. The free zones: simplicity of speech, complexity of the roles 1199.4. The golden belt 1219.5. Territories without frankness, buccaneering territories 122Chapter 10. Geography of the Gulag Archipelago 12510.1. The sources of this survey 12610.2. Geographical history 12710.3. The organization of the archipelago 13310.4. The modes of production 14210.5. Conclusion 15210.6. Appendix 153Chapter 11. Geography of Migrations or the Antiworld in Spate 15511.1. Waves and currents of emigration 15611.2. Wanderings of insecurity, fracture of Mediterraneans 15811.3. Migrations systems: nomadism or wandering 16011.4. Conclusion 161PART 3. MODELS AND CHOREMATICS 163Part 3. Introduction 165Chapter 12. Building Models for Spatial Analysis 16712.1. From spatial organization to models 16812.2. Choremes 17212.3. The syntax of choremes or the linguistics of geography 183Chapter 13. Model Maps and Choremes 19113.1. Models and choremes 19113.2. The rules of art 19213.3. The procedure 19413.4. “In Poland, i.e. nowhere” (A. Jarry) 19513.5. The language of maps 19813.6. Bibliography and References 199Chapter 14. Models in Geography?A Sense to Research 20114.1. What is a model? 20214.2. Refutations 20514.3. From theoretical practice to necessary hypotheses 20814.4. Requirements of modeling 21014.5. Conclusion 214Chapter 15. Mediterranean Models 21715.1. The lake 21815.2. The focus 21815.3. The straight 21915.4. The isthmus 22015.5. The crescents 22115.6. The barrier 22115.7. The chott 221Chapter 16. The Aquitaine Region as a Corner 22316.1. The southwest corner of France 22316.2. Openings to seize 22616.3. Dissymmetries of nature 22916.4. Two urban systems 23116.5. Regions and resources 234Chapter 17. Structural Dynamic of the City of Tours (France) 23917.1. Administrative center of a province on a Paris radius 24117.2. The Val effect 24317.3. The metropolization and the network star 24417.4. Tours: social inequalities 248Chapter 18. Analysis and Representation of Spatial Organizations: A Few Models 25318.1. Openings 25318.2. Color images 26318.3. Other illustrations 263PART 4. SCALES OF GLOBALIZATION AND MOVING EUROPE 267Part 4. Introduction 269Chapter 19. Ways, Forms, and Figures of Globalization 27119.1. Economic globalization 27219.2. The global village 27319.3. Global ecology 27519.4. How globalization changes the world 27719.5. Re-differentiations and polycentrism 28019.6. Contradictions and permanencies 28219.7. Representations 283Chapter 20. Aspects of Globalization: the Diamond Revolution 28720.1. The De Beers empire: a heritage of British imperialism 28720.2. After globalization by monopoly, polycentric globalization 29120.3. Rupture and uncertainties at the turn of the millennium 296Chapter 21. European Fields and Mainlines 29921.1. The peninsula of the old continent 29921.2. The European backbone 30121.3. The Ring 30221.4. The European trellis 30421.5. Centralities, barriers and new found solidarities 30621.6. Conclusions 30821.7. Appendix: Blue Banana 308Chapter 22. Transnational Urban Systems in Europe: Towards a New Modernity 31122.1. Europe as a milieu 31322.2. Can transnational city systems help Europe? 31522.3. Conclusions 322Chapter 23. Russia in Revolutions 325PART 5. GEOGRAPHY INTO THE CITY PROSPECTS 333Part. 5. Introduction 335Chapter 24. Regaining Reason 33724.1. El sueño de la razón 33724.2. Unsustainable city 33824.3. Territories in competition 33924.4. Si les signes vous faschent 34024.5. The marshland of Entelechies 34124.6. Serio ludere 342Chapter 25. What is Geography? 34325.1. The field of geography 34325.2. Geography as a science 34525.3. Geographies 34725.4. Geography as an established fact 35125.5. Applied geography 353Chapter 26. Geography in the Public Place 35526.1. As an increased desire for geography 35526.2. Five equations for fractions of society 35626.3. Geography as Janus: two sides of the profession 35826.4. Currents and patterns, or navigating without sinking 36026.5. For socially useful works 36226.6. Conclusion 364Chapter 27. Geography and Human Rights 36527.1. The difference 36527.2. Resorting to nature 36727.3. The revealing space 36827.4. Conclusion 370Chapter 28. Dimensions of Sustainable Development 37128.1. The scale of sustainable development is global 37228.2. Worldwide contradictions of sustainable development 37428.3. Local scale: untenable “sustainable city” 37828.4. The intermediate scales 38028.5. Conclusions 382Conclusion. Along the Way 383Index 385