Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2024

Out of cities’ boundaries but closer to the center

Résumé

Research on the suburbs of French cities has extensively covered the medieval and contemporary periods, yet the period between 16th and early 19th centuries remains relatively understudied. The population’s relative prominence in suburbs compared to enclosed central areas varies significantly from city to city and region to region. Historical maps also reveal the differing sizes and densities of suburbs in any given city. Existing literature typically attributes divergent developments to three main factors. Firstly, topographic constraints often lead to the emergence of smaller suburbs. Secondly, economic specialization, driven by specific resource demands (e.g., water), need for open spaces, or legal advantages (reflecting the barrier effect of the city’s juridical boundaries, such as the octroi tax), can foster rapid and spatially significant growth. Thirdly, the flows on main axes, which link the city to its more distant systems, would polarize housing in varying degrees according to their importance. However, these factors overlook the interdependence of suburbs and urban centers, especially in terms of distance, a crucial component of city dynamics. This study hypothesizes that disparities of the size and density of suburbs within a city are also contingent with their accessibility to the urban center. We test this hypothesis through spatial analysis methods, studying the case of ten cities in northern France in the early 19th century, i.e. Chauny, Compiègne, Ham, La Fère, Nesle, Noyon, Péronne, Roye, Saint-Quentin, and Soissons. These cities have diverse historical origins and positions within the political-administrative territories, and are also representative of the diversity of the demographic urban hierarchy at that time. Initial spatial data is derived from État-major maps, offering the advantage of detailed, harmonized 1/40,000-scale representations of the area under study.
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Dates et versions

hal-04691079 , version 1 (07-09-2024)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-04691079 , version 1

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Julie Gravier. Out of cities’ boundaries but closer to the center. 16th Conference of the European Association of Urban History, EAUH 2024 Cities at the Boundaries, Sep 2024, Ostrava, Czech Republic. ⟨hal-04691079⟩
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