CENTRES AND CENTRALITIES
How did the political centrality of the Roman Empire operate? Where did Emperors have their official residences? Where did the Senate convene? Where were the capitals of the Empire? How did New Rome last more than old Rome as a capital city?
Pope Francis, one would say, is fond of the geographical/geometrical word “centrality.” He is the Pontifex Maximus, the centre of the Roman Curia, by definition the central government of the Church, thus he is...
In the heart of centrality, this is, indeed, the subject of the book of Saskia Sassen. New York, London and Tokyo command the global-city network in the world, that is, the cities in which the biggest number of financial and economic transactions, cultural manifestations, and “pivotal” decisions are made (hence “central functions”). Los Angeles, Toronto, Sao Paolo, Paris, Frankfurt, Johannesburg, Dubai, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore belong to this network of global cities.
Cet article se propose de démontrer que les déplacements des lieux d’installation de fonctions centrales à l’économie et aux réseaux de la ville de Beyrouth (et donc ceux de sa “centralité”) ne sont que l’expression spatiale de phénomènes conjoncturels variés. La centralité beyrouthine, loin de se focaliser en un seul lieu par une accumulation progressive d’attributs, s’est déplacée selon des contextes géopolitiques.
Calenda – Géographie
