The “diffuse city” to the test of History. Urbanism and urbanization in the Belgian Brabant. ; La "ville diffuse" à l'épreuve de l'Histoire : urbanisme et urbanisation dans le Brabant belge

This thesis shows that the way in which the history of urbanism is elaborated makes it possible neither to know the past of current “diffuse city” nor to suppose the existence of any “diffuse city” in the past ; it intends then to contribute to a history of urbanization in the broad sense of the word by producing new sources (vol. 3), which are not the archives of urbanism (vol. 2). After analysing the way in which these territories “neither rural norurban” are apprehended today (chap.1), a physical field is studied in particular : the Belgian Brabant, on four different scales (chap.2 -5). The... Mehr ...