Accueil > Documentations scientifiques > Revues récentes > Madagascar : revue de géographie > Archives > Volume 8, janvier-juillet 1966 > Géographie urbaine et développement économique à Madagascar

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  Géographie urbaine et développement économique à Madagascar
  Madagascar : revue de géographie, Volume 8, janvier-juillet 1966 pp:1 - 9

  Auteur(s) : Isnard H.

  Auteur correspondant :

  Mots-clés : GEOGRAPHIE URBAINE/DEVELOPPEMENT ECONOMIQUE /MADAGASCAR
  
  

  Résumé de l’article

  [FR]

  [MG]

  [EN] The urbanization of underdeveloped countries raises a series of political, economic, and social problems. From a scientific angle it opens a vast field of study in processes which should not escape the notice of whoever is setting up a policy of development. In Madagascar, geographical research is under way for this purpose. Professor Isnard who has known the Great Island for many years, presents us here with a few guiding principles. In industrialized countries, the towns, as centres of development, have created polarized regions around them. The national area thus emerges as a planetary assembly of urban district. In Madagascar, an urban network does not yet exist. The region surrounding the capital forms an exception. In Imerina economic life is already ruled to a great extent by Tananarive. In other places, the market economy, being still rudimentary, no town has been able up to now to organize a planetary regional life. The links between the ports and the hinterland are slack : they leave between them a vast zone free from all influences. In M. Isnard’s opinion this implies a serious risk. The growth of the capital is out of proportion with the present possibilities of employment. Tananarive is assuming too much importance as related to the rest of the country in which the urban framework is still inadequate. It is therefore essential not to devote to the capital too many resources as compared to the provinces, to create other poles of development and to animate the existing urban frameworks by multiplying their functions. Thus Fianarantsoa seems in a fair position to convey to the southern half of the island an impulsion comes from Tananarive. M. Isnard concludes by recalling that Geography only throws into relief the structures which seem necessary to canalize the active forces in a country ; it is up to the public authorities to devote to this task the best means at their disposal.