Urbanisation, suburbanisation and territorial development: research issues for small and medium-sized towns

Abstract

Metropolitan areas tend to be the core of recent scientific and policy debates about urbanization, suburbanization and territorial development, and much less research deals with the case of small and medium-sized towns (SMSTs). The aim of this chapter is to place SMSTs in these debates, by asking what are the consequences of the current urbanization and suburbanization trends for European SMSTs. Following the introduction, we first discuss the hypothesis that the proximity or distance of SMSTs to big cities matters for their development. In empirical terms, France is an ideal case to consider due to the historic role played by SMSTs and taking into account that it currently experiences strong urban sprawl around large agglomerations, which is progressively encompassing small and medium-sized urban centres. We show that SMSTs are quite diverse regarding population and job trends, depending on whether they belong to a more or less dynamic region and/or whether they are close to a large city. Second, we discuss policy schemes that have been set up in France for the redevelopment of SMSTs. We critically examine how the development 'problems' of SMSTs were put on the agenda, the diagnosis developed by public decision-makers, but also the axes imagined for redevelopment, and finally the results obtained. We show that the national policies targeting SMSTs have been implemented based on the general perception (popularised by the media) of SMSTs in decline, without considering their diversity. Besides, the high number of municipalities hinders the implementation of regeneration strategies at the right scale. We conclude that the spatial delimitation of a small and medium-sized town, especially at the institutional and political level, matters for the success of urban regeneration policies.

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