Quelles dynamiques pour les petites villes en Europe ? Une étude comparée Saxe-Bretagne (1990-2015)

• Main Authors: Guy Baudelle, Joachim Burdack, Louis-Thibault Buron
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Société Royale Belge de Géographie and the Belgian National Committee of Geography 2019-05-01
• Series: Belgeo
• Subjects: towns; small cities; Saxony; Brittany; population dynamics
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/belgeo/34305

The diversity of the factors commanding the evolution of small European cities is addressed from a comparative analysis of two peripheral regions within their national space but subject to opposite demographic trends: Saxony (Eastern Germany) and Brittany (France). The assumptions and the methodological choices are presented. The population dynamics of the towns from 1990 to 2015 exhibit various types for each region. The results are used to reassess the current state of knowledge: far from a general crisis, the evolution of small cities is very dependent on their distance from dynamic (large or medium) agglomerations and the demographic dynamics of their region.