Metropolis

The term of metropolis (of the Greek mêtêr , mother, and polished , city) has several Acception S:

  • in the Antiquity, the town of origin of the founders of a colony (example Phocée is the metropolis of Massalia).
  • a State considered without its colony S external, department S and overseas territories or dependences, states attached and zones of sovereignty except principal borders;
  • the Capital political or economic of a state or an area;
    • in France, the term Métropole of balance indicates in the document concerning with the installation a great provincial urban center which can counterbalance Paris;
  • for the Church, the chief town of an ecclesiastical province depending on a primatie and where seat the metropolitan archbishop ;
  • with the planetary scales, a town of several million inhabitants (UNO retains the figure of eight million) gathering important transport or management, decision-making centres (one speaks in this case rather about Mégapole);
  • the principal center of influence of a particular field, for example, the metropolis of the cinema ).

The metropolis like urban Pole

One can regard as metropolis a Ville:

  • concentrating a relatively strong population
  • with functions of command in the fields economic and financial
  • influencing the organization of the industrial activities and tertiary
  • with the tète of a Urban network
  • having a capacity of impulse and organization
  • representing a bond with the highest level (except in the case of the Capital national)
  • concentrating Employment strategic S

One in general considers the character of metropolis of a city not according to his size, but according to his structure, i.e. if it corresponds to the beforehand definite characteristics. One can thus consider the metropolis on various scales, of the world Ville with the Métropole of balance.

One indicates by Métropolisation the phenomenon of formation of metropolis or reinforcement or of assertion of the capacity of these command centres.

National scales

A metropolis with the national scales generally corresponds to the Ville which is located national Urban network at the head.

There exist various cases of figure:

  • certain metropolises, like Paris, London, Casablanca, or Athens, occupy a so disproportionate position compared to the cities which surround them that one speaks about macrocephalic urban networks (of the Greek , means famous person ) dominated by a Ville primatiale.
  • of other countries knows a bicephalous network (with two heads ) like the Italy (with Rome and Milan) or the Spain (with Madrid and Barcelona) or the Suisse (with Geneva and Zurich).
  • on the contrary, certain countries have an urban network more balanced: it is the case, for example, of the Germany, the Canada or the the United States which are federate States. Moreover, with the the United States of America and the Canada, certain states or provinces have a Capitale and a metropolis distinct, one political and administrative and other economic and industrial one. On the coast of the North-East, for example, Albany and Quebec State of New York and Province of Quebec are respectively capital, while New York and Montreal is metropolises.

On the scale infranationale, it is possible to distinguish several types of metropolises: world metropolises (like Paris), metropolises with limited international radiation (Lyon, Marseilles…), and intermediate regional metropolises (Montpellier, Rennes, Orleans…), which was the subject of a study of the DIACT in 2007.

Regional scales

The Acception of the term metropolis to indicate the place where are centralized some important functions, in particular economic, social, political and cultural depends on the prospect for those which are located in periphery.

On an area scale, it is an urban center (for example a regional capital or main road), while with that for example of the Overseas territories of the France it is the eurocontinentale part Hexagon.

Thus the Great Britain was called metropolis in the conflict which opposed it to its 13 colonies North America (that the English called the insurgent ) during the Guerre of independence of the United States of America.

Global scales

In fact the total Métropoles are 4 in the world: New York (the United States), Tokyo (Japan), London (the United Kingdom) and Paris (France).

Contemporary metropolises

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