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The aim of the paper is to explore methodologies for exhibiting ecological inequalities on a given area. It begins with a definition of ecological inequality in order to make this notion operative for statistical and cartographical processes. Ecological inequalities are construed in two ways: inequalities related to pollution and environmental deterioration, inequalities regarding environmental impacts. The paper then presents what is possible to assert today about ecological inequalities on a territory for which data are not always centralised — as it is the case for Belgium. Databases have been systematically explored, and when quantitative data have been found comparable, the selected variables are examined, as well as some correlations and the result of a principal component analysis. The environment is thus reduced to what is measurable and interpretable. A first result is that wealthier households escape most often from pollution whilst they generate more pressure on the resources. But besides this expected result, we show that some cultural aspects are linked to ecological inequalities. The paper concludes with some methodological comments.

In this paper, we explore the hypothesis that contemporary geographies of economic activities within metropolitan areas in Europe are moving into polycentric configurations. Our contribution is based on results derived from an analysis of 7 metropolises that were brought together within the EU-funded research programme “COMET” (namely Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Copenhagen, Strasbourg and Vienna). We first build on an enquiry of enterprises in these 7 cities, then document the nature and localisation of the multiple metropolitan (sub)centres by bringing together the expertise of scholars and institutional partners in each city – case study. The paper ends up with a discussion on the implications of contemporary intra-metropolitan reconfigurations for both urban researchers and policy-makers. Our results confirm the starting hypothesis, that is, far from a scenario of generalized dilution of the urban form, European metropolitan areas show the emergence of (diverse) configurations wherein urban functions are distributed among a series of (sub-)centres, with CBDs and inner-city districts no longer acting as sole location for key economic activities.

Within the current context of suburbanisation of service enterprises, the politico-administrative partition of the Brussels metropolitan area across three regions repetitively provokes situations of territorial competition, thus obstructing the emergence of the vision of a metropolitan whole composed of different types of complementary rather than competitive spaces. This article presents the results of an enquiry concerning the types of localisation chosen by a sample of production service enterprises in the Brussels Capital Region and its periphery. This enquiry highlights several specific combinations of localisation factors that, in some cases, are reflected spatially by distinct parts of the metropolitan area. These results indicate a logic of complementarity (as opposed to one of competition) between different types of spaces defined by specific characteristics and functions within the functional ensemble of the Brussels area.

In this note, we explore the question of whether the adoption by the World Bank of a new paradigm of economic space inspired by the new economic geography leads to a new political vision about development. The answer is clearly no: the new focus on agglomeration and macro-regional integration is used to justify exactly the same old liberal policies encouraged by the World Bank for the last thirty years.