Mutations du système de villes belges

Abstract

This paper highlights the evolution of localisation strategies of economic activities in the Belgian urban hierarchy and, by extension, analyses modifications in the economic profile of Belgian urban areas. The shift to post-Fordism and the rise of post-industrial society constantly seeking for flexibility for its economic production system has led to a complete change of structure in economy networks and has induced a readjustment within the models and strategies of economic activity localisation. Consequently, the inherited spatial economic structures had to adapt to these changes. Firstly, this paper focuses on how these changes have affected the urban hierarchy distribution of activities and stresses the specificities of the Belgian city-system associated with these evolutions. Secondly, this paper aims to evaluate the hierarchical processes’ impacts on the systemic evolution of the Belgian urban areas and on their economic profiles. In order to do so, multivariate analysis was chosen for its robustness and its potential to conciliate sectorial employment data, diachronic study and systemic analysis of the Belgian city-system.

Keywords

• urban system
• scaling laws
• innovation cycles
• urban economy