Most of the academic works done on supply chains over the last ten years conclude that it is necessary to take into account the mix between distance and proximity to better understand their evolutions. Logistical space is in fact based on "radialization" practices, the hub-and-spokes pattern representing one of its best-known archetypes. For a first-tier supplier involved in a supply network operating in just-in-time, this means being situated along a structuring axis connected to a gathering then dispersal point to another structuring axis on which the recipient assembly plant is located. Here, the notion of spatial proximity disappears to the advantage of a temporal proximity in which high delivery frequencies question neither the supply chain’s productivity nor the economies of scale made by the first-tier supplier (the assembly plant benefits from these economies of scale). This paper proposes some clues in this direction. It particularly underlines the role that logistics service providers might have in the building of organizational proximity inside a "dispersed" logistical space.
The needs for proximity are often considered as an important factor in the emergence of polycentric urban areas. Workers are in particular supposed to locate near their employment subcenter. This paper aims to verify this hypothesis through the example of the Paris urban area. The results1 confirm that a part of the workers are locate within or close to their employment subcenter but they also show a growing distance between the workers and the jobs located in the subcenters between 1975 and 1999.
The implementation of the Eastern Europe high speed railway line, expected in June 2007, will reduce the duration of the journey between Reims and Paris from 1h35 to 45 minutes in average, but it will serve unequally Champagne-Ardenne, in favouring mainly the Marne department thanks to the direct servicing of Reims, and the Ardennes in a lower extent, to the detriment of the Aube and of the Haute-Marne. What will be the potential effects of the modifications of the temporal proximity both between Champagne-Ardenne and Ile-de-France, and within Champagne-Ardenne? Prospective analyses display a high diversity, from the most pessimistic assumptions (breaking up the region) to the most optimistic ones (emergence of a large regional centre spreading its effects all over the region). Whereas traditionally, such effects have been grasped in terms of structuring effects, the aim of this article is to show that, besides the features of the planned servicing and besides the social and economic potentialities of the region, these effects depend on the way the local forces will organize their new local relationships, with coordinated accompanying policies. Therefore, in Champagne-Ardenne, the pattern will depend on the capacity of local forces to favour the emergence of new kinds of coordination in the frame of a revival of the territory’s project.
This paper relates to urban spatial data or point patterns. It focuses on methods allowing to synthesise data sets and to reveal similarities, trends, contrasts and knowledge. First perceived as bundles of data, urban spatial data sets develop into information on behaviours and trends when educated with appropriate methods.This paper discusses issues related to the use of large spatial datasets, Origine-Destination survey data and Canadian censuses data for instance. A number of spatial analysis methods are illustrated in order to further the information that can be drawn from these datasets. Actually, these methods can clarify the influence of space (absolute spatial location, local proximity, neighbourhood effects) on the nature and intensity of urban behaviours and features.
Interrogation about daily mobility to work of underprivileged classes refers to the links between mobility conditions and employment situations. Two fields can be explored about travel. Effective mobility involves to look at how people do move as far as it is observed in global surveys. Potential mobility -also called accessibility- evaluates individual range of choices according to commute determinants. This approach which is here led in the Paris region with a quantitative method can be a mean to examine inequity issues.