| Abstract: | At least in France the sub-region is a living spatial entity. It is partly the heir of structures established in the pre-industrial epoch, receiving from the ancient ‘pays’ and old administrative structures the sense of belonging to a certain social cadre held by a population. For a long period the weak development of an hierarchy of urban services made most towns of equal standing, limiting the growth of commercial relationships and the dimensions of functional spaces. With the growth of an hierarchy of urban services, and improvement in accessibility the functional units have enlarged, breaking unequally the former cadres, and creating polarisations of various scales. Where the metropolises have not become dominant the sub-regions remain sufficiently autonomous, around a town of medium size. More often, in every case where local polarisations have been progressively effaced, and economic spaces have enlarged immeasurably and where the administrative region is seeking identity, the sub-region is reasserted as a social functional space in the pattern of customary life-style, and appears acceptable as a level in the operation of spatial management. |
