Cities, Vol. 20, No. 4, p.

253263, 2003
2003 Elsevier Science Ltd.
doi:10.1016/S0264-2751(03)00032-5 All rights reserved.
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0264-2751/03 $ - see front matter
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Metropolitanization and territorial

scales
Nathalie Gaussier*, Claude Lacour and Sylvette Puissant
Universite Montesquieu-Bordeaux IV, Institut dEconomie Regionale du Sud-Ouest,
Avenue Leon Duguit 33608, Pessac, France

The process of metropolitanization does not conform to the predominant view of urban growth.
It is closely related to selective concentrations of activities and jobs and to social polarization
and spatial fragmentation. It is primarily associated with very large cities. In this paper, we
suggest that the process may exist according to various territorial scales: worldwide, local and
regional scales. We provide an analytical framework for regional metropolitanization applied
to Bordeaux city and its labor market. We examine where the process of metropolitanization
operates by using an approach based on the major components of the labor market (supply
and demand). The results indicate that the metropolitanization process generates centrality
effects, a specific density distribution of advertised jobs and of job seekers. The process also
leads to rigidity in the labor market that varies according to time and distance from the city-
center and the qualifications of the labor force. The existence of segmented markets enlightens
the territorial benchmarks of the process of metropolitanization.
2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Centrality, distance, labor market, France

Introduction modes of regulation. The metropolis plays a crucial

Most researchers and practitioners investigating urban
fields agree that metropolitanization is the set of pro-
cesses that enhance large urban dimensions, that is
marked by the changes of productive system analyzed
for worldwide levels, that lead to new organizations
and re-structuring of territories and that concern their
internal and external relationships as well (Lacour
and Puissant, 1999). The main ideas, related to selec-
tive concentration (populations, activities, functions,
flows), to changes concerning intra and interurban
relationships and to the foundation of an urban hier-
archy, are at the heart of this movement.
The concept of metropolitanization is more than a
simple synonym of urban growth according to its
accepted and statistical meaning: a whole package of
trends, such as urban sprawl, or increasing urbaniz-
ation rates in spaces already strongly urbanized. The
phenomenon of metropolitanization exceeds all these
tendencies. It constitutes a model in which the pro-
cesses of concentration, commandment, control, coor-
dination, and the creation of codes prevail over other
Corresponding author. Tel.: +33-0556-848551; fax: +33-0556-
848647E-mail: ; e-mail: gaussier@montesquieu.u-bordeaux.fr
role in the territorial structuring of activities (Lacour,
1996): it attracts population and stimulates activities
complementary to those that are concentrated in its
center and rejects others in peripheral areas. A
metropolis is supposed to empty its remote periphery,
to generate phenomena of segmentation and territorial
segregation. Indeed, the concentration of specific
activities in a single place generates an area of influ-
ence likely to illustrate the territorial benchmark of
the metropolis.
At the same time, a metropolis increasingly stimu-
lates aterritorial functions, i.e. worldwide functions.
The metropolis is supported, in particular, by the
development of communication networks (material
and immaterial flows), of which it becomes a major
node at the expense of its area of influence (Taylor et
al, 2002). Paradoxically, this second aspect has been
more developed than the first. With a particular stress
on the metropolis in its etymological meaning, we
could forget that it has also to provide with its own
functionality and its own effectiveness. More pre-
cisely, research has given prominence to patterns of
aterritorial processes, investigating the relevance of
distance as an explanatory and restrictive variable of
economic dynamics. Though distance at a global scale

253
 Metropolitanization and territorial scales: Nathalie Gaussier et al.
is not constraining any more, at a local scale it remains
a significant factor. If distance is not practically an
impediment in the multiplication of exchanges, how-
ever it is likely to generate locking phenomena or
imbalances that territorial structures can explain. One
striking example concerns congestion in the transpor-
tation systems. Individual displacements, whatever the
reason, indicate these limits and raise the question of
the territorial influence of a metropolis.
Then, the phenomena of metropolitanization that
create concentration and dispersion, polarization and
diffusion may exist according to various and adapted
patterns, at every urban size and at every period.
Some places, supported by specific productions, tech-
nologies and adequate cultures generate changes, even
if it is true that for fifty years New York, London,
Paris, Tokyo, Los Angeles, etc have been steadily
highlighted. The concept must be preserved and
developed: processes must be appreciated in series of
cities, but at all urban scales: worldwide, regional and
local, the main idea would be to focus the analysis
on mechanisms, benefits and drawbacks of metropoli-
tanization, that is conceived and managed as a
phenomenon which can potentially occur in all cities,
whatever their size, their functions and their history.
(Lacour and Puissant, 1995).
Our task in this paper is to explore a specific terri-
torial approach of the city in order to highlight the
multi-level nature of metropolitanization. The main
hypothesis of this paper is that metropolitanization is
not the prerogative of massive cities (section 2). The
focus is on the regional urban scale and the phenom-
enon of metropolitanization is examined through the
constituent dimensions of the labor market: supply and
demand (section 3). The following section (section 4)
concerns the set of data. The densities and rigidity in
the labor market are analyzed according to the skill of
the labor force and to the distance to the center of the
regional capital city (Bordeaux) limited to 40 minutes
by car (section 5). Insofar as a metropolis should gen-
erate concentration and dispersion, an effect of cen-
trality and density at a regional level, our analysis
should reveal a strong trend of spatial organization that
both overruns these tendencies and enhances the terri-
torial benchmark of the Bordeaux metropolis. Bor-
deaux and its close periphery mainly concentrate
skilled jobs whereas its remote periphery is rather spe-
cialized in specific and complementary activities that
need low skilled jobs. Better than the condition of the
size of a metropolis, beyond the a-territorial features
that connect a metropolis to worldwide development,
it seems that metropolitanization can operate at various
scales. Section 6 is a conclusion discussing the multi-
level nature of such a process.
Metropolitanization as the prerogative of
large cities
Originally, research on metropolitanization was con-
nected to globalization and to the changes in pro-
ductive systems. An abundant literature attempts to
254
understand the evolution from the Old Economy to
the New Economy, regarding the definition of new
functions and activities, and to the understanding of
some preferential locations: the well-known world-
cities or global cities, London, Tokyo, New York,
Paris and so forth. Research on metropolitanization
involves the necessary conditions of the processes
(Lacour and Puissant, 1998): a relevant demographic
size (one million inhabitants at least), easy accessi-
bility, development of new technologies and digital
economic activities, a significant technical, political
and symbolic capital that strengthens the role of the
city of capital (The Economist, 1998) and of the
capital cities (e.g. Paris and London). Metropoli-
tanization implies an unending concentration that runs
in the national territories. Metropoles expend great
effort to be on international stages, leading to an
exacerbated competition for specific functions (Stock
Exchange, Finance, Culture). They take care not to
give to any cities, especially to smaller ones, the least
gain or monopoly (Gordon, 1999). From this perspec-
tive, the phenomenon of metropolitanization is cer-
tainly the prerogative of large cities. Then, defining
metropolitanization as an increasing degree of urban
change leads up to the debate on agglomeration econ-
omies and externalities. Indeed, the analysis of the
processes of metropolitanization focuses on the
elements that explain and valuate the concentration of
activities and powers as well as the revival of some
urban functions. Metropolitanization is the ability to
create, to develop or to reinforce new activities in tra-
ditional locations or close to large urban areas. It
obviously suggests the idea of diversity, which seems
to be the prerogative of some (large?) cities
(Henderson et al., 1995). Undoubtedly, diversity
explains why these cities can simultaneously attract,
adapt, and change because they have a significant
stock of capital, which is consolidated and renewed,
which intensifies the emergence of new activities.
Within a different framework, Quigley (1998) asks
the same question: how do diversity and size affect
the level of output and the level of well-being achiev-
able in a city? (130). It is still one of the arguments
underlined by Anas et al. (1998) who, analyzing
empirical descriptions of the polycentric city, stress
that Most jobs are outside centers (1443), and that,
as we can agree, that newer growth is more dis-
persed than earlier growth. They continue the cru-
cial but unanswered questions are whether older cen-
ters remain vital, and, when not, whether they are
replaced by newer ones? (1443). Quigley (1998)
suggests arguments that are called up in the debate
related to the New Theory of Growth. Even ifhe
saysmany points were listed in Marshalls Prin-
ciples of Economics and in Industry and Trade, they
have been adapted and they have become more pre-
cise. From this re-reading, he notes four points in
particular: scale economies, firm indivisibilities, con-
nected and useful participation of different activities
on a single place, and the effects of the law of large
 Metropolitanization and territorial scales: Nathalie Gaussier et al.
numbers that weaken the changes of activities. Quig-
ley explicitly underlines labor market matching.
From the production side, a better operation of the
labor market insofar as job search, according to pro-
fessional qualifications and to the nature of activities,
must be more effective: the return on the human
capital to a worker in a city rises as the stock of
human capital in the city rises, and the return on
physical capital investment to an investor also
increases with the stock of capital in the city (132).
From the demand side, consumers benefit from lower
transaction costs in large cities.
In connection with the debate on diversity and spe-
cialization (Lacour, 1999), two arguments concerning
the identification of thresholds and urban sizes can be
underlined which are mainly found in the theorization
of MAR and Jacobs externalities (Anas et al., 1998;
Quigley, 1998). The first argument notes that the cit-
ies, and particularly the city centers, systematically
seek to get attributes of their competitors (a famous
university, great museum, preserved heritage, follow-
ing the examples of London, New York or Montreal).
It is necessary to keep the same diversity as the other
cities, to cancel or limit a comparative disadvantage.
But, in other respects, these cities try to findin
reality or in a symbolic waya discriminating spe-
cialization at a given moment. The quarreling to
become a European stock-exchange capital city is an
example of this behavior.
The features of territorial structures and urban mor-
phology constitute the second argument related to
urban size. It concerns the relocation of populations
and activities in peripheral areas that the city center
neither needs nor wants, whereas free areas offer good
opportunities for new agents with higher profitabilities
(the volcanos theorem). It refers to the famous Anat-
omy of a Metropolis (Hoover and Vernon, 1959) and to
the crucial issues learned in Alonso and Von Thunens
models. Along the line of the previous analyses, the
processes of metropolitanization concern increasing
selectivity, concentration and also standardization, dis-
persion or relocation of activities: at the same time
and almost in every city, services formerly supplied by
a few places including the regalian political, edu-
cational and health functions, economic and cultural
activities, are broadly available (Lacour and Puissant,
1999). Expressed in economic, political, cultural and
financial terms, Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux do not belong
to the same group. But, when we consider similar
metropolitanized cities in France (so-called metro-
poles dequilibre) or European and International Cities
(i.e. defined by specific attributes), if we agree that any
given place is currently or potentially part of the planet-
ary village, can we analyze the metropolitanization pro-
cess independently of its extremely selective location?
Analytical framework: metropolitanization,
labor market and employment
Factors such as geographical mobility, waves of
industrial reorganization, new forms of productive
organizations, the lifelessness or dynamism of mar-
kets, and local systems of employment constrain the
landscape in which people who seek employment
have selected to live and operate. Most important in
this regard for job seekers are the local systems of
employment (Jayet, 1997). The behavior of the local
systems of employment needs to be put in the context
of urban structures, in order to relate them to recent
changes in urban economies that lead to the polariz-
ation of populations and the segmentation of activi-
ties. Such an approach acknowledges the emergence
of higher levels of the urban hierarchy, characterized
by the quality, the diversity, and the specialization of
functions in economic activities, while at the same
time operating as a place of exclusion in which social
and spatial segregation are the norm (Puissant and
Boyle, 1999). Thus, apparently fluid and large labor
markets may also be ones in which the individual suf-
fers from various abnormalities that are characterized
by the multiplication of segmentations of new urban
economies, and the spatial mismatch of employment
and population associated with insufficient regulation
of job search behavior, material accessibility
(distance) and immaterial accessibility (information).
If uncertainty exists about the urban determinants of
labor markets, any analysis that attempts to explore
the notion of city employment has to begin with an
uneasy articulation of the relationships between urban
dynamics and labor market dynamics (Holzer, 1991;
Arnott, 1998).
Thus, labor markets are essential parts of urban
development patterns and constitute a convenient tool
to explore the territorial benchmark of metropolitaniz-
ation. Two analytical options can be considered in
exploring the relationships between urban patterns
and the labor market (Lacour et al., 1998). The first
focuses on the labor market, with emphasis being
placed on micro and macro-economic determinants of
labor; on the causes of job creation and job loss; on
the role of structure in the labor force and on geo-
graphical-occupational mobility. However, we need to
be cognizant of intra-urban disparities in unemploy-
ment, creation of jobs, the diverse dynamics of metro-
politan areas, and the precarious nature of poverty.
Here, the relationships between urban theory and
urban unemployment need to be placed more firmly
within the urban context. More precisely, it should be
noted that research on local markets of employment
(or local employment systems) tends to compare them
to the various national, regional, or metropolitan mar-
kets, whose major characteristic is to produce and to
exacerbate the processes of segmentation and
exclusion. However, given the expanding nature of
the labor market, the interrelationship between the
local, metropolitan, and regional market has become
more important.
The second option is more directly centered on the
analysis of urban dynamics. In this way, the city and
its attributes are evaluated from indicators related to
employment (Bonamy and May, 1995; Damette,
255
 Metropolitanization and territorial scales: Nathalie Gaussier et al.
1994; Lacour and Puissant, 1998; Moulaert and Scott,
1997; Pumain and Saint-Julien, 1995; Puissant, 1998).
The alternative approach suggested by Quigley (1998)
is also interested in the principles of urban growth.
He explores the nature of intra-metropolitan location
models whose characteristics are to be considered
with respect to the qualification of employment
(nature of jobs, of activities), suggesting that the
appropriate start should be the household unit
(displacement related to places of residence and to
places of work, ratio of women in the labor force).
The urban structure, the city size and the dynamics
of cities are the main focus of this work, where there
is a considerable body of literature (Harris, 1954;
Hall, 1959; Hoover and Vernon, 1959; Pred, 1966;
Krugman, 1998). Other research has explored the base
multiplier model (Catin, 1995), created typologies of
activities and economic functions (Noyelle and Stan-
back, 1984), and has attempted to quantify and evalu-
ate external economies and agglomeration effects
(Baumont and Huriot, 1995, 1997; Harrison et al.,
1996). In these studies, the dynamics of cities are
primarily evaluated by using variables related to
employment and to changes of the locations of activi-
ties and firms.
The choice of the components of the labor market
(as demand and supply) seems relevant to emphasize
two main considerations of the process of metropoli-
tanization, by combining at the same time some glo-
bal elements of concentration (highly skilled activities
for instance) with specific territorial behaviors on
which the quality of the employment relationship is
founded. The contrast between jobs and workers in a
city implicitly reveals a set of more or less strong
constraints and behaviors related to location and to
mobility issues (residential location, location of
activities). Information on required qualifications for
vacant jobs can indirectly indicate the specificity of
some functions, which are concentrated in the city,
and also their territorial markings. On the one hand,
the process of metropolitanization could be
approached as an aterritorial process because of
nested networks and of the international dimension it
involves, but on the other hand, it could be conceived
in spatial and territorial terms. At diverse scales
(national, regional, local), the processes of metropoli-
tanization bet on territories and can be founded on
different spatial structures of activities. A spatial read-
ing of the labor markets provides an economic facet
of metropolitanization as it both considers skilled
advertised jobs, as the expression of the dynamics and
diversity of local economies and unemployment, as
the expression of inertia and precariousness of local
economies (demand viscosity, spatial segregation,
for example).
The labor market seen through the skills of the
work-force and advertised jobs can indicate the con-
centration of specific activities and the specializations
that are the dominant features of a classic metropolis.
In Europe (and particularly in France), high skilled
256
jobs may be concentrated in the inner city whereas
low skilled jobs are represented in the periphery. Then
activities developed onto the territory that match with
advertised jobs and the dynamics patterns of metro-
politanization enlighten the aterritorial features of a
metropolis. Some activities are more dependent on
territorial, geographical, historical or cultural roots.
Concerning the Aquitanian labor markets related to
viticulture, forestry or tourism, that are basic elements
of the regions development, the advertised jobs cor-
responding to medium qualification are of fundamen-
tal importance to the definition of territorial factors.
The metropolis, through the analysis of the density
of the skilled labor force and of the tightness of the
labor market, presents two facets: a worldwide facet
that the international networks manage and a terri-
torial facet that a regional or a local scale may define.
As an example, Bordeaux , the major city of the Aqui-
tanian region, can be linked to international networks
(through its wine market in particular), can be thought
of as a metropolis1 and reveals that the process of
metropolitanization concerns particular territorial
structures. In spite of what we have called a world-
wide scale, Bordeaux has developed national net-
works and a territorial embeddness that marks its area
of influence.
Data set
To analyze the territorial benchmark of metropoli-
tanization, with Bordeaux and its labor market as a
case study, two data sets have been used. The first set
comes from the National Agency for Employments
databases in 1999 and concerns five hundred cities
constituting the departement de la Gironde. Secondly,
the transport time by driving to Bordeaux has been
computed for each city located in Gironde (Puissant
and Gaussier, 2000). Despite their intrinsic interest,
these data suggest some debatable points. The
approach is initially based on job supply (recorded
opportunities, advertised jobs) and on job demand
(job seekers at the end of the month) listed by cities.
We assume that located supply and located demand
correspond to territorial realities, able to give evi-
dence of local labor markets. To compare these data,
recorded supply (flow) and demand for jobs (stock)
have been replaced by annual averages. This specific
statistical framework cannot consequently tackle the
adjustment issue or more exactly the spatial mismatch
hypothesis that is linked to the phenomena of residen-
tial segregation, suburbanization, and, generally
speaking, to the re-location of population and activi-
ties.2
1
The city-center is 215,363 inhabitants. The urban agglomeration
is 753 931 inhabitants (1999 Census of Population).
2
Literature on the Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis is extremely abun-
dant and discussed (for examples and syntheses see: Holzer, 1991;
Fernandez, 1994; Taylor and Ong, 1995; Immergluck, 1998;
Arnott, 1998; Stoll, 1998; Preston and Mac Lafferty, 1999).
 Metropolitanization and territorial scales: Nathalie Gaussier et al.
Driving distances from Girondes cities to Bor-
deauxs city-center are estimated for a small car
enforcing speed limits, without significant traffic
jams. In fact, our approach to labor markets can be
partially deformed by the prevalence of congestion
in traffic. Areas under metropolitan influence are not
appreciated by the usual criteria of commuting: they
are evaluated by a time-distance that considers the
distance from each city (residential location) to Bor-
deauxs city-center. So, this spatial appreciation of
one facet of the metropolitanization process could
corroborate the role of territorial structures and then
allow comparisons with existing spatial structures.
This paper implements a reading of labor markets
focused on the metropolitanization phenomena,
especially on their implications in terms of attractive-
ness and exclusion (Stoll, 1998; Hughes, 1991). The
analysis introduces the distance to the city-center of
Bordeaux as an element of the knowledge of how
labor markets can structure metropolitan territories.
Thus, the distribution of the gross density of supply
and demand according to distance to the city-center
can be obviously considered as a tool for assessing
the rigidity in the labor market. This distribution, in
other respect, can denote information concerning the
ability of Bordeaux to generate effects of centrality,
for instance. Unlike North-American urban contexts,
it must be noted that the notion of centrality we used
coincides with local realities, maybe national realities.
The geographical framework of the analysis is the
departement de la Gironde that is, the second area
of French governance before the region and after the
commune (the city as the unit of this analysis). To
avoid edge effects, due to the cities located in adjacent
departments, we choose to cover cities characterized
by a time-distance to a maximum of 40 minutes (304
cities). They respectively express nearly 85% and
84% of advertised jobs and job seekers that are listed
in Gironde (Figure 1).
The representation according to the distance to the
city-center illustrates the importance of transportation
networks on Girondes morphology. We can observe
breaking-down points in the density profiles corre-
Figure 1 Distribution of cities according to the distance to Bordeaux (minutes by drive)
sponding to 5 minutes distance from Bordeauxs city-
center. This discontinuity can be explain by the fact
that Bordeaux is a relatively spread-out city, a city
with low buildings, with an area of almost 130 square
miles, theoretically equal to a radius of 6.5 miles. In
addition, infrastructures of transport that net the vari-
ous geographical sectors contribute to clarify the
phenomena of dependence that affect labor markets
(Giuliano and Small, 1993). This type of represen-
tation sets the impact of territorial structures resulting
from the centrality of Bordeaux (Figure 2).
We will note U (for unemployed), the density of
job seekers, and V (for vacancies), the density of
advertised jobs. Our notations of unemployed and
vacancies are wider than the usual expressions,
which generally concern the result of the mismatch
between supply (advertised jobs) and demand (job
seekers). Vacancies and unemployed are, there, ex
ante variables because they are associated with adver-
tised jobs and job seekers before matching. We do
not directly focus on the mismatch effect, according
to the distance to the Bordeaux city-center, rather we
suppose that for each skill, job seekers have a pro-
nounced ability to face advertised jobs. Then, we
show where tension would occur if the city-center
were the key of the labor market, as it should be in
a metropolis.
Bordeaux metropolis: centrality and rigidity
in the labor market
A metropolis is often associated with the ability to
concentrate and to develop specific activities
(quaternary, high-tech, finances) involving highly
skilled jobs. Except to be part of international net-
works, a metropolis does not directly need a particular
territorial embeddness. It can be reduced to a status,
composed of a set of attributes that are located in a
given point of space. Hence, learning the slope of sup-
ply (advertised jobs) and of demand (job seekers)
densities (see Figures 36) according to the time-dis-
tance to Bordeaux city-center, the decreasing den-
sities from center to periphery reveal the strong effect
257
 Metropolitanization and territorial scales: Nathalie Gaussier et al.
Figure 2 Distance by drive to the city-center of Bordeaux
Figure 3 Semi-logarithmic representation of the densities of
jobs according to time-distance to the city-center of Bordeaux
of polarization generated by the metropolis. Whatever
the levels of skills, the densities of job seekers and
of advertised jobs are higher in Bordeaux than in
Girondes other cities. Figures 36 show the promi-
nent centrality of the metropolis.
First of all, the semi-logarithmic representations
emphasize the effect of polarization of Bordeaux. For
each level of qualification, the curves of densities
decrease from the higher density noted for Bordeaux.
258
Figure 4 Semi-logarithmic representation of the densities of
jobs according to time-distance to the city-center of Bordeaux
Indeed, Bordeaux city-center concentrates 29% of the
supply and nearly 23% of the demand. But especially,
these semi-logarithmic representations express the
effect of centrality generated by the city, which con-
centrates highly skilled, medium and low skilled sup-
ply and demand. This effect is strong, as the curves
have a steeply slope. The general aspect of these
curves indicates two major characteristics.
 Metropolitanization and territorial scales: Nathalie Gaussier et al.
Figure 5 Semi-logarithmic representation of the densities of
jobs according to time-distance to the city-center of Bordeaux
Figure 6 Semi-logarithmic representation of the densities of
jobs according to time-distance to the city-center of Bordeaux
1. Beyond 15 minutes and 20 minutes from Bor-
deaux, densities of highly skilled supply and
demand decrease and weaken. We find there the
impact of the diffusion of the process of metropoli-
tanization into the territories: highly skilled jobs
are only concentrated in Bordeaux and its urban
area whereas low skilled and medium skilled jobs
are both important in Bordeaux urban area and in
some peripheral places. This model reveals the
specificity of Bordeaux spatial development
defined by geography (the important width and
length of the Garonne River and the Gironde
estuary), from economic history (services connec-
ted to wine production, to aircraft engineering) and
more generally from planning and urban policies
(decentralization, zones of urban sprawl constitut-
ing the first ring of Bordeaux urban area).
2. Beyond 20 minutes from Bordeaux, the density of
low skilled labor supply grows, suggesting the exist-
ence of specific labor markets. They concern, in
particular, those related to the agricultural sector and
to building activities, which are the most relevant
examples of the relationships between the structures
of the labor market and the urban morphology of
Bordeaux: i.e. a close connection of suburbanization
with a vineyard landscape, principally.
As gross densities are estimated as the ratio of job
seekers or of advertised jobs divided by areas con-
cerned, undoubtedly, we stress a size effect on the
labor market that will be removed in the valuation of
the rigidity in the labor market. The analysis reveals
thresholds, which enlighten different aspects of the
urban morphology and, more generally, the under-
standing of spatial metropolitanization processes. This
tension has been evaluated as a function of the dis-
tance to Bordeaux and for three levels of qualification
of the labor force: high, medium and low (Figure 7).
This figure leads to significant findings concerning the
elements that structure Bordeauxs metropolitan area.
1. First, the rigidity in the labor market according to
time-distance is more effective for highly skilled
categories than for the low and medium skilled
groups. This result reinforces our remarks on the
effect of centrality: the densities of advertised jobs
and of job seekers decrease as distances to Bor-
deaux increase. Figures 810 specify this obser-
vation. Supply and demand densities according to
distance to Bordeaux are respectively stronger for
the medium skilled category than for low skilled
and highly skilled categories. This feature gives to
Bordeaux a specific pattern: the tension for the
highly skilled category is greater in Bordeaux than
in surroundings cities that are located 10 minutes
from Bordeaux. We observe also that advertised
jobs and job seekers densities for the medium
skilled category are more important in Bordeaux
than for highly skilled and low skilled categories.
These trends reveal specific characteristics con-
cerning both employment located downtown and
the resident populations that are specialized in
medium and highly skilled jobs. Then, Bordeaux
seems to look for diversity through the medium
scale: a metropolis of medium skilled workers
(employees principally), specialized and developed
through a process of decentralization. As seven
other cities in France, Bordeaux has been designed
as a metropole dequilibre, since 1965, to counter-
balance the pre-eminent influence of Paris, known
as a macrophage metropolis. These remarks con-
tribute to the definition of Bordeaux as a regional
metropolis. The processes of metropolitanization
could be explained by the location of highly skilled
advertised jobs in the Bordeaux urban area3 and
also by the presence of medium skilled jobs in the
city-center and in its remote periphery. Some labor
markets (as those linked with aerospace activities)
are very dependent on national and on international
growth (competition with other regional cities as
Toulouse, Grenoble, and space programs for
example).
3
10 minutes by drive from the city-center, i.e. a ring that fits with
the main places of decentralized activities or new activities.
259
 Metropolitanization and territorial scales: Nathalie Gaussier et al.

Figure 7 Distribution of tension according to time-distance

Figure 8 Tension according to the densities of jobs

Figure 9 Tension according to the densities of jobs

2. Secondly, rigidity in the labor market varies
according to distances by drive to Bordeaux city-
center. Tension reaches its minimum in cities
located 35 minutes from Bordeaux. In the low
skilled category, the minimal tension is reached in
rural areas, especially those located within 3040
minutes. The minimal tension for the medium
skilled category is observed in Bordeaux city-
center and for the highly skilled category, it is
noted within the Bordeaux urban area i.e., in cities
located 10 minutes away. Tension reaches its
maximum in cities located 20 minutes by drive
from Bordeaux. The maximum for the low skilled
is noted within areas located 15 minutes away,
whereas for medium skilled, there is a maximum
noted at 20, then 30 minutes. For the highly skilled,
the rate is estimated at 20 then 35 minutes. This
movement illustrates the volcanos theorem and
coincides with the movement of urban sprawl from
the city-center and the de-densification of this area.
The trends of the tension allow us to define various
types of labor markets according to their proximity

260
 Metropolitanization and territorial scales: Nathalie Gaussier et al.
Figure 10 Tension according to the densities of jobs
or their remoteness from the city-center. This segmen-
tation of the markets fits with different territorial
realities (jobs opportunities, kinds of jobs, markets
dynamics) and with social realities too: specific
location of minorities such as young job seekers, long
time job seekers. In Figure 7, for instance, we observe
that highly skilled and medium skilled are out of
phase between 20 and 40 minutes by drive from Bor-
deaux and that highly skilled and low skilled are out
of phase between 30 and 40 minutes. We will note
that territorial structures play an important role in
determining such thresholds. Indeed, cities located 10
and 20 minutes away (11% of the sample) have high
supply and demand rates (they represent 65% of the
whole Gironde supply), whereas the cities located
beyond 20 minutes have lower rates (Figures 810).
Results are similar according to the various types of
skills and also to the durability of jobs, full-time jobs,
temporary or occasional jobs (Puissant and Gauss-
ier, 2000).
These facts are likely to express specific territorial
elements: a relative homogeneity of the first urban
ring that covers cities located 10 minutes by drive
from Bordeaux city-center; these places are represen-
tative of strong agglomerations and densities inherited
from Bordeauxs industrial history. Then, a second
ring (1520 minutes) that expresses various periods
of urban growth and of urban sprawl; it is a suburban
area, which involves cities mainly characterized by
residential assignment during the Sixties and the Sev-
enties, a landscape made of suburban housing and
decentralized activities. Beyond 20 minutes, the terri-
torial structure is changing. It is an area in transition
that is submitted to metropolitanization processes
while preserving significant rural features. We sug-
gest that this context could be defined as an area of
metro-rurality.
Is metropolitanization a multi-level
phenomenon?
City-metropolis and metropolitanization are primarily
explained in comparison to an external environment,
pushing into the background its immediate territory:
i.e. the territory on which a metropolis is located, the
territory that a metropolis controls, structures and spe-
cializes. Taylor et al (2002) observe that, the essence
of this is power to rather than power over,
specifically the power to service global capital (232).
So many times we have read that Bordeaux, for
example, has turned away from its hinterland, focus-
ing on international trade and overseas; it is very
recently that the city rediscovers that its river has a
right bank (Laborde, 1998; Dumas, 2000). During the
first phase of research on metropolitanization, it was
undoubtedly necessary to focus on globalization and
to stress the new aspects and the breaks with the tra-
ditional analyses of urban growth. Now, it seems
imperative that further research should be done to
identify more generally the operating scales and the
achievement levels of metropolitanization processes.
There is a need for evaluation, comparison and
empirical research into these topics in order to take
into account, in particular, the New challenges for
Urban Governance (Kearns and Paddison, 2000).
The example of the functioning of the labor market
of the Bordeaux metropolis raises a set of concerns
about the scales of the processes of metropolitaniz-
ation. A relevant typology of metropolitan dynamics
should be able to distinguish what we refer to as the
worldwide level, to the regional level or to the local
level. In an exploratory way, we have specified, for
each scale, their territories of influence, their main
activities, the characteristics of their labor markets
and also the transaction costs, in continuation of Qui-
gleys research. These three scales of metropolitaniz-
ation are obviously simplified and will require more
investigations (Table 1).
The worldwide scale is connected to an abundant
literature and is mainly constitutive of metropolitaniz-
ation theories. The worldwide metropolitanization
pattern would be, at first sight, a tautological form
insofar as debates are embedded in subjects concern-
ing world cities, global cities and so forth. So, even
if the word metropolitanization is apparently well
known, it suffers from a serious evidential deficit
of empirical findings (Taylor et al., 2002, p232), if it
always refers to a very small number of cities (Sassen,
261
 Metropolitanization and territorial scales: Nathalie Gaussier et al.
Table 1 Different scales of the metropolitanization process

Influence area and attraction Activities Labor market Costs of transaction

function

Worldwide National and international Generalized diversity Specific demand for Matching difficulties
scale Within networks of world cities Stock of capital highly skilled jobs Networks and clubs
Large influence on national Specialization on universal Sticking market Procedural and
hierarchy products Long-distance queuing processes
Creation and sensitivity to commuting Congestion
social codes High level
Activities substitution and unemployment
concentration Spatial mismatch
Increasing
segmentation

Regional Regional international
scale (1 or 2 products)
Limits defined by Paris and
other regional cities
attractiveness
Southern influence
Diversity on a medium scale Prominent metropolis Strong dependence on
Specialization centrality procedures and laws
Public and private coordination Volcanos theorem Choice of regional
Inherited specialization from Dependent to national cities characters
history, geography, political and international growth Personal and
structures Markets segmentation institutional networks
Search for specialization in Specification of
technological, cultural activities unemployment zones

Local Within a region Common diversity Public employment Personal and

scale To get a local identity without Complementary with urban Limited market preferential networks
institutional definition areas of medium size Brain drain Professional
Projects within local networks Inherited activities from local Dependent to segmentation
corresponding to medium size and natural resources demography Professional and
and small cities Bet on new activities Paternalism and community life
Leadership family management structures
Brief international attraction Hidden poverty
for one product

1991), the predilection for these cases would be
neither representative nor enlarged on metropolitan
dynamics (Mitchell-Weaver, 1999).
The second scale, known as the local scale, aims
at understanding how medium size cities, small units
and even large villages could play a significant ter-
ritorial role. This scale is related to the phenomenon
of metro-ruralisation, also called rural metropolises
or emergent cities (Dubois-Taine and Chalas, 1999;
Lacour and Puissant, 2003). In some rural areas, pro-
cesses are often operating, which tend to either
develop some traditional activities or to create some
new activities which combine, more or less success-
fully, amenities and high technologyan ultimate
version of this idea is the image of the lone eagles
(Gibson, 2000).
The third scale, called the regional scale, has been
defined in order to fill an analytical gap. Indeed,
regional metropolises have been broadly studied from
the point of view of regional planning and economic
disparities likely to exacerbate regional imbalances
and to weaken the national territory. They also appear
in research related to European cities and inter-
national cities. We have shown that the regional
scale may be designed to link aterritorial (worldwide)
with territorial (local) scales. However, the reality and
the relevance of regional metropolitanization need
to be more discussed (Brenner, 2002) and better ident-
ified.
Finally, it seems crucial to appreciate the motives
and the ways that give to some cities, whatever their
size and their position in urban hierarchy, qualities
and elements that positively differentiate them from
other cities located at the same scales and seeming to
have comparable means. That is the unceasing
ambition of the metropolitan paradox.
Acknowledgements
The paper is based upon research supported by the
Regional Council of Aquitaine, France. The authors
wish to thank the editor for helpful comments and
suggestions. All errors and omissions remain our own.
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