Dans les pays en développement, les liens sont étroits et multiformes entre ledéveloppement urbain et les économies rurales. Dans les régions de montagnes, notamment enAfrique de l’Est, les espaces sont fortement interdépendants à travers les relations commerciales,les déplacements de personnes, les flux de productions, selon des échelles géographiques ettemporelles variables. Des logiques de continuum, de gradient, voire de rupture, sont à l’oeuvre.Dans ce contexte, le rôle joué par les Petites et Moyennes Entreprises (PME) reste encorelargement à démontrer, notamment leur place dans la structuration des flux de produits et depersonnes (exemple des petits entrepreneurs commerçants, des transporteurs faisant la navetteentre zones de production, de commercialisation et de consommation, etc.). La place des petitesvilles dans ce processus d’intégration territoriale est importante, car elles jouent souvent le rôlede premier relais et d’interface préférentiel entre les économies urbaines et rurales.L’approche par les PME permet d’appréhender le rôle de l’initiative individuelle et collective(voire communautaire) dans la dynamique de développement territoriale, mais égalementd’analyser les actions mises en place (ou non) pour favoriser l’entrepreneuriat, par les autoritéspubliques et les organisations non gouvernementales (accès au microcrédit, etc.).Le terrain choisi est la province du Central Kenya, région du Mont Kenya et des Aberdares, avecles petites villes de Sagana et Karatina comme zone d’étude privilégiée. C’est une zone de fortesdensités de peuplement, à l’économie rurale voire agricole bien structurée mais en reconversion(économie post-Café) et qui dispose d’un réseau urbain hiérarchisé (petites villes d’étude, villemoyenne de Nyeri, proximité relative de la métropole de Nairobi).Les principaux résultats témoignent du rôle dissymétrique joué par les petits entrepreneurs, et àtravers eux par les petites villes, dans les relations villes-Campagnes. Si leur rôle est crucial dansles flux entrants (approvisionnement des consommateurs urbains et ruraux desservis), il estrelativement faible dans les flux sortants, ce qui témoigne des logiques de concurrence exercéspar des opérateurs extérieurs (relations directes entre grossistes urbains et producteurs ruraux)mais aussi par des intermédiaires locaux (coopératives, grossistes, etc.). / Abstract: Small and Micro-Enterprises (SMEs) are known to form significant nodes inrural-Urban linkages. Consequently, these SMEs serve as strong nodes which link thesurrounding rural areas to Local, National and Regional Markets through forward andbackward linkages. By strengthening and opening up opportunities for SMEs ‘virtuous’circles of rural-Urban economic linkages are created.The study of the rural-Urban linkages activities is still in development. This thesistherefore seeks to add to the literature by generating and documenting information onthe role of SMEs in small towns in rural-Urban linkages. Kenya is an agricultural-Ledeconomy, hence the need to focus on small mountainous towns. The towns aresurrounded by rich agricultural areas and are highly populated, making them busy hubsof mobility and exchange. Therefore, Mt. Kenya region is the chosen area of study withSMEs in Sagana and Karatina towns chosen as centres representing small towns.Based on the study results, SMEs were found to play an relatively small role in forwardlinkages. Only 12% of goods and services coming to the small towns from the ruralareas were forwarded by the SMEs, and only 25% of these goods found their way toother markets. The study established that some factors such as to the marketing chaincreated by the Famers Sacco’s, the use of Information and CommunicationTechnologies and contracting farming could be contributing to the poor show of SMEs inforward linkages.The rural functions in urban SMEs were found to be real and instrumental inentrepreneurship development. They were not only vital in business survival in lowseasons but were also found have positive correlations with large capital base, highmonthly turnover, increased access to loan facilities, and large size of the enterprise.Previous studies have shown that the rural-Urban trade to be more than urban-Ruraltrade. However, the current study shows the latter is almost three times more. Theresults could be said to differ in case where the point of focus is the small trader in thesmall town as opposed to a general urban-Rural trade approach. Also the nature of thefarmers markets could determine the flow pattern between urban and rural supplies.Karatina and Sagana markets behaved more of international markets, where most of thetraded goods and supplies were not from the local catchments. This meant ruralpopulace depended on the towns not only for manufactured goods and professionalservices but also for agricultural produce.

The main objective of thesis is to empirically assess the level of social capital in relation to the development of the city. First, the thesis discusses the theoretical framing of the concept of social capital; it also deals with the topic of regional development and its conditionality, including the issue of the development of small and medium-sized towns. The second part is devoted to a quantitative analysis of social capital and regional development in all Czech small and medium-sized towns. The last part presents detailed qualitative research on social capital, specifically the results of case studies observed at the level of comparable towns Týn nad Vltavou and Třeboň. In these case studies, key equalities and differences of social capital in connection with the formation of the city were identified. We also confirm the importance of social capital as one of many factors that determines the territorial development. Key words: social capital - regional development - small and medium-sized towns - Týn nad Vltavou - Třeboň

L’objectif de cette recherche est de promouvoir une nouvelle approche de l'analyse des systèmes urbains régionaux, tenant compte du progrès technologique et des évolutions contemporaines dans les modes d'organisation de la vie et du travail. Nous avons souhaité expérimenter la « Théorie des villes en réseau » sur notre cas étude. En effet cette approche est évoquée comme un « modus operandi » alternatif par d'éminents géographes, sociologues et économistes parmi lesquels Manuel Castells, Roberto Camagni, Georg Simmel et Jan van Dijk. La « Théorie des villes en réseau » présente deux avantages principaux en comparaison des théories traditionnelles. Ces avantages résident dans la prise en compte de deux phénomènes postérieurs aux théories traditionnelles : d’une part, la prise en considération de nouveaux contextes socio-spatiaux ; d’autre part, l’appréhension de l’évolution des processus de transmission de la connaissance. / With the purpose to promote a new approach to the analysis of regional urban systems which takes into account the technological progress and the contemporary evolutions in the ways of organizing, living and working, we felt compelled to seek the evidence of the “City-network” theory as an alternative modus operandi evoked by some prominent geographers, sociologists and economists such as Manuel Castells, Roberto Camagni, Georg Simmel, Jan van Dijk and others. The advantages of the “City-network” theory as compared to the traditional theories are in understanding that there are new socio-spatial contexts and that the contemporary knowledge travels along “pipelines” between cities, towns, cultures which are neither spatial nor strictly hierarchical. The network is seen as a structure where the nodes are cities and towns connected by the link of different nature, through which socio-economic flows are exchanged.