Recherche et urbanisme commercial

Abstract

Research on commercial urbanism In the course of the last twenty years, commerce has undergone substantial changes as is demonstrated by the appearance and spectacular spread of new forms of retailing, by economic and financial concentration, by intensified competition in connection with an increasing use of advertising techniques. These changes are closeley linked to the process of rapid urbanization that France witnessed in the same period, to increased consumption by households and to changes in ways of living. As a result, the problem of the place of trade in the urban context has been raised in entirely new ways. The article reviews recent studies and research efforts concerning the evolution of commercial facilities and its relationship with the problems of planning and town development. Up to 1974, most of the research work consisted of studies on the specific pre-operational installation of commercial facilities in areas of urban expansion, or market research surveys relating to the peripheral implantation of super or hypermarkets. As of 1974, there has been a new emphasis on drawing up policies relating to commercial facilities at the level of the urban agglomeration, and on gaining a better knowledge of the development of the distribution sector and its underlying causes. In general, these researches, too descriptive and normative, suffer from a considerable poverty of available statistical sources. To overcome these weaknesses, the Délégation générale à la recherche scientifique et technique (DGRST) has been organizing, since 1977, a research program concerning the commercial apparatus, viewed in its town-planning dimension ; concerning its development in relation to the transformation of the cities and changing consumption patterns ; concerning structural changes in the distribution sector and the financial and economic concentration to which it is subjected ; and, last but not least, on buying behavior. Number twelve of the Annales de la recherche urbaine presents the results of some of the research carried out in connection with this program.