Geographical Space and its Logistical governance

Conference organised by the center of research MRTE from 11th to 13th September, 2018 located in Gennevilliers

The reorganization of flows is transforming geographical spaces by redefining the layouts and hierarchies of places (Savy, 2006) (Merenne-Schoumaker, 2007). Logistics combines economic processes and their political framework and now appears as a central issue in planning. Whereas research has been able to focus on technical devices or economic choices, the conference invites the participants to highlight logistics as an instrument of geographical governance and a political issue.

In this light, three levels of analysis are favoured which form a system whose geographical interdependencies have to be questioned:

•         Firstly, the global approach, which involves the major political and economic stakeholders in a geopolitical understanding of circulations and the decisions made by the most significant political powers involved;

•        Secondly, in a macro-regional approach, the political responses of the competing states and their organization have to be considered;

•        Thirdly, with regard to metropolitan areas where the major world hubs are linked to the final delivery (Hesse, 2008).

These three geographic components also correspond to three facets of the logistics approach seen by geographers, as a means of competition and domination, as an instrument of planning and as a negotiating issue.

Coordinators: Antoine Beyer and Laurent Gatineau

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