Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

An Evolutionary Theory of Urban Systems

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
International and Transnational Perspectives on Urban Systems

Part of the book series: Advances in Geographical and Environmental Sciences ((AGES))

Abstract

The chapter develops a theory that encompasses as far as possible the existing state of knowledge in urban sciences for identifying regularities at the world scale and enabling worldwide comparisons of urban systems. Relying on the specific concepts in geography that consider cities as complex systems which self-organize and coevolve in systems of cities through their socio-spatial interactions, it provides an explanation of the emerging common properties of these systems, including their hierarchical organization and functional diversity. Major driving processes are the creative emulation in urban competition and the spatial diffusion of innovation that are renewing opportunities and challenges to urban stakeholders. Cities and systems of cities acting as socio-spatial adaptors can be considered as expressing a collective territorial intelligence because of the resilience of urban systems over long time periods. According to variations in space and time, such generic processes when contextualized and taking into account the path dependence effects are compatible with a geohistorical interpretation of urban diversity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 139.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    See the European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant GeoDiverCity http://geodivercity.parisgeo.cnrs.fr/blog/

References

  • Allen P (1997) Cities and regions as self-organizing systems: models of complexity. Gordon and Breach, Amsterdam

    Google Scholar 

  • Arthur WB (1994) Increasing returns and path dependance in the economy. University of Michigan Press, Ann Harbor

    Google Scholar 

  • Bairoch P (1985) De Jericho à Mexico. Gallimard, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Batty M (2005) Cities and complexity. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Beckmann MJ, Golob TF, Zahavi Y (1983) Travel probability fields and urban spatial structure: 1. Theory. Environ Plan A 15(5):593–606

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berry BJL (1964) Cities as systems within systems of cities. Pap Reg Sci Assoc 13:147–163

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bettencourt L, Samaniego H, Youn H (2014) Professional diversity and the productivity of cities. Nat Sci Rep 4:5393

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Botero G (1588) Della cause della grandezza e magnificenza delle città. Tre libri. New edition in 1598 with the book “La Ragion di Stato” (7th ed) in Venezia and a cura di Luigi Firpo by the Unione Tipografico Editrice Torinese in 1941

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourne L, Sinclair R, Dziewonski K (eds) (1984) Urbanization and settlement systems: international perspectives. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Bretagnolle A, Pumain D (2010) Simulating urban networks through multiscalar space-time dynamics (Europe and United States, 17th–20th centuries). Urban Stud 47(13):2819–2839

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bretagnolle A, Paulus F, Pumain D (2002) Time and space scales for measuring urban growth. Cybergeo 219:12 p

    Google Scholar 

  • Bretagnolle A, Pumain D, Vacchiani-Marcuzzo C (2007) Les formes des systèmes de villes dans le monde. In Mattéi M-F, Pumain D (dir): Données urbaines, 5, 301–314

    Google Scholar 

  • Bura S, Guérin-Pace F, Mathian H, Pumain D, Sanders L (1996) Multi-agent systems and the dynamics of a settlement system. Geogr Anal 2:161–178

    Google Scholar 

  • Castells M (1996) The information age: economy, society and culture: the rise of the network society. Blackwell Publishers Inc, Massachusetts

    Google Scholar 

  • Christaller W (1933) Die Zentrale Orte in Süddeutschland. Fischer, Jena.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cottineau C (2014) L’évolution des villes dans l’espace post-soviétique. Observation et modélisations. Université Paris I, PhD thesis

    Google Scholar 

  • Favaro J-M, Pumain D (2011) Gibrat revisited: an urban growth model including spatial interaction and innovation cycles. Geogr Anal 43(3):261–286

    Google Scholar 

  • Fujita M, Krugman P, Venables AJ (1999) The spatial economy. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibrat R (1931) Les inégalités économiques. Sirey, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Girard R (2008) Mimesis and theory: essays on literature and criticism, 1953–2005, dir. Robert Doran, Stanford University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Haken H (1977) Synergetics, an introduction: nonequilibrium phase transitions and self-Organization in Physics, chemistry, and biology. Springer-Verlag, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Krugman P (1996) Confronting the mystery of urban hierarchy. J Jpn Int Econ 10:399–418

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lane D, Pumain D, van der Leeuw S, West G (eds.) (2009) Complexity perspectives on innovation and social change, ISCOM, Springer, Methodos Series 7, 492 p

    Google Scholar 

  • Lepetit B (1988) Les villes dans la France moderne (1740–1840). Albin Michel, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Marcus J, Sabloff JA (eds) (2008) The ancient city. New perspectives on urbanism in the old and new world. SAR Press, Santa Fe, 405 p

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin R (2008) Path dependence and path creation in the economic landscape. In: Boschma R, Martin R (eds) Handbook of evolutionary economic geography. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham

    Google Scholar 

  • Moriconi-Ebrard F (1993) L’urbanisation du monde depuis 1950. Anthropos, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Pirenne H (1939) Les villes et les institutions urbaines, vol 2. Bruxelles, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Pred A (1977) City systems in advanced economies. Hutchinson, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Pred AR (1973) Urban growth and the circulation of information: the United States system of cities, 1790–1840. Harvard University Press, Series: harvard studies in urban history

    Google Scholar 

  • Prigogine I, Stengers I (1973) La nouvelle alliance. Gallimard, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Pumain D (1982) La dynamique des villes. Economica, Paris, 231 p

    Google Scholar 

  • Pumain D (1997) Vers une théorie évolutive des villes. L’Espace Géographique 2:119–134

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pumain D (2004) Scaling laws and urban systems. Santa Fe Institute, Working Paper n°04-02-002, 26 p

    Google Scholar 

  • Pumain D (ed) (2006) Hierarchy in natural and social sciences. Kluwer, Dordrecht

    Google Scholar 

  • Pumain D (2012) Multi-agents system modelling for Urban Systems: the series of SIMPOP models. In: Heppenstall AJ, Crooks AT, See LM, Batty M (eds) Agent-based models of geographical systems. Springer, Population Studies, New York, pp 721–738

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Pumain D, Gaudin J-P (2002) Systèmes de villes et pouvoir L’analyse de Giovanni Botero à l’époque de la Renaissance. Cybergeo 227:19 p

    Google Scholar 

  • Pumain D, Saint-Julien T (1978) Les dimensions du changement urbain. CNRS, Paris, 202 p

    Google Scholar 

  • Pumain D, Sanders L, Saint-Julien T (1989) Villes et auto-organisation. Economica, Paris, 191 p

    Google Scholar 

  • Pumain D, Paulus F, Vacchiani-Marcuzzo C (2009) Innovation cycles and urban dynamics. In: Lane D, Pumain D, Van der Leeuw S, West G (eds) Complexity perspectives on innovation and social change, ISCOM. Methodos Series. Springer, Berlin, pp 237–260

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Pumain D, Sanders L (2013) Theoretical principles in interurban simulation models: a comparison. Environ Plan A 45:2243–2260

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pumain D, Swerts E, Cottineau C, Vacchiani-Marcuzzo C, Ignazzi A, Bretagnolle A, Delisle F, Cura R, Lizzi L, Baffi S (2015) Multi-level comparison of large urban systems. Cybergeo 706. http://cybergeo.revues.org/26730

  • Reynaud J (1841) Villes. In Encyclopédie nouvelle, vol. VIII. Gosselin, Paris, pp. 670–687 (discovered by Robic, 1982)

    Google Scholar 

  • Robic M-C (1982) Cent ans avant Christaller, une théorie des lieux centraux. L’Espace Géographique 1:5–12

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robson BT (1973) Urban growth, an approach. Methuen, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Sanders L, Pumain D, Mathian H, Guérin-Pace F, Bura S (1997) SIMPOP: a multi-agent system for the study of urbanism. Environ Plann B 24:287–305

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scott AJ, Storper M (2014) The nature of cities: the scope and limits of urban theory. Int J Urban Reg Res 39(1):1–15

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tarde G (1890) Les lois de l’imitation. Alcan, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Turchin P (2003) Historical dynamics: why states rise and fall. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Turchin P, Currie TR, Turner EAL, Gavrilets S (2013) War, space and the evolution of Old world complex societies. PNAS 110(41):16384–16389

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ullman E (1954) Geography as spatial interaction. In: Interregional linkages. The proceedings of the western committee on regional economic analysis, Berkeley, pp 63–71

    Google Scholar 

  • Veblen T (1899) The theory of the leisure class: an economic study of institutions. The Modern Library, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Zipf GK (1941) National unity and disunity. Principia Press, Bloomington

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, UMR CNRS 8504 Géographie-cités, Paris, France

    Denise Pumain

Authors
  1. Denise Pumain
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Denise Pumain .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geography and Sustainability, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Celine Rozenblat

  2. University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, UMR CNRS 8504 Géographie-cités, Paris, France

    Denise Pumain

  3. Regional Office of UN-Habitat for Latin America and the Caribbean, United Nations Habitat, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Elkin Velasquez

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Pumain, D. (2018). An Evolutionary Theory of Urban Systems. In: Rozenblat, C., Pumain, D., Velasquez, E. (eds) International and Transnational Perspectives on Urban Systems. Advances in Geographical and Environmental Sciences. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7799-9_1

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation