Les villes intermédiaires françaises face aux mutations des systèmes productifs : enjeux et stratégies territoriales

Abstract

Intermediate cities are facing a particularly difficult situation. Embedded in industrial trajectories, they must modernize their productive system to face territorial competition. If the shift towards innovation offers new perspectives, they are too small to play the same role as metropolises in the knowledge economy. Nevertheless, in the context of competition between cities, they are also too big to follow the same path as medium-sized cities. This paper tackles the issues of productive system evolution for intermediate cities, and discusses the impact of national public policy to reinforce innovation and competiveness at this very specific urban level.

Keywords

• Intermediate cities
• Productive systems
• Innovation
• Public policies
• Metropolization