Ten years of metropolization in economics: a bibliometric approach (In French)

Research on metropolization has been very active during the 1990s, but it seems to have relatively run out during the next decade. In this paper, we review the way metropolization was dealt with in economics these last ten years. We use bibliometric tools and network analysis so as to bring out four main fields of research. Each one is analyzed from the point of view of the theoretical filiation and of the dynamics of publication. We also bring out the main questions and the controversies of the 2000s. The Global City is based on geographers\' works such as Friedmann and Sassen. Various classifications to qualify the global urban hierarchy are developped. Several authors argue in favour of a more explicit consideration of the territory. The Innovative City is at the intersection of urban economics and the geography of innovation. If the impact of economic diversity and proximity is still studied, the localization of headquarters is an emerging theme. The Cognitive City, which derives from the application of the human capital theory to the city, sees growing research on the nature of the externalities of knowledge. Finally, the Creative City, stemming from Florida’s theses at the beginning of 2000s, is an emergent theme. As such, it is the object of rather lively controversies: on the composition of the creative class, on the \"primacy of location\" of creative people or firms, and on the nature of the \"creative milieu\". This literature brings to the foreground some innovative themes such as the work on cosmopolitanism.