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Tensions exist in the way that the European Union is conceptualised. How do we reconcile the persistence of a Europe of fragmented nation-states and the European integration project based on the principle of free movement? This duality is indicative of different geographical visions: between space defined as places and space defined as unifying flows. While places tend to be associated with fixed territories and borders, it is argued that complex global flows and connections may disrupt such notions. Addressing these theoretical tensions, this thesis examines transnational frameworks for discussing the reconfiguration of borders and spaces within the European Union. The aim of this research is to explore the extent to which European Union citizens, with freedom of movement, experience mobility between member states in a frictionless manner. The thesis adopts a “bottom-up” approach of migrants’ experiences and perceptions of internal borders, as barriers or opportunities to their movement and settlement. This is illustrated through the case of Britons resident in France. The thesis draws on data generated through qualitative methods, including fifty-three in-depth interviews undertaken in an ethnographic setting. The case study demonstrates how a frictionless European space does not exist for ordinary European Union citizens, for a variety of political, legal, economic and socio-cultural reasons. The analysis reveals how Britons recreate (national) state borders, by adapting to French politico-legal structures, and identifying boundaries between “us” and “them”. The thesis also identifies how transnational spaces are created through immigrants’ social networks. By exploring the everyday lives of intra-EU migrants, the thesis contributes to literature on British migrants in France, and provides an original contribution to studies of EU integration, focused on ordinary citizens on the move.

In contemporary debates on space, the validity of &amp / #8216 / physical space&amp / #8217 / as an indispensable category of human existence is widely questioned on the basis of the claim that the relevant interval of analysis has shifted from &amp / #8216 / space&amp / #8217 / to &amp / #8216 / time&amp / #8217 / , thanks to the technological innovations enabling the speed of present-day telecommunications. The apparent primacy of mobility of deterritorialized commodities, signs, meanings, and identities, in the contemporary society, adds new dimensions to the traumatic experience of ephemerality, in spatial and temporal categories. Through the claims declaring, the dissolution of the dichotomy between urban and rural, and redefinition of the relevant dichotomy between the &amp / #8216 / space of places&amp / #8217 / and the &amp / #8216 / space of flows&amp / #8217 / in recent theoretical efforts / we attempt to trace how the notion of &amp / #8216 / place&amp / #8217 / could be revalidated and reconstituted with reference to processes of contemporary globalization. The study examines the new paths for a constructive definition of &amp / #8216 / place&amp / #8217 / , which are opened up by the crisis in locating and representing temporal and spatial categories both physically and mentally.

Doutor em Geografia / Este trabalho tem como objeto de estudo a montadora automobilística MMC Automotores do Brasil S.A. sediada em Catalão/Goiás desde 1998. Por ora, visa compreender o processo de estruturação e consolidação de seu circuito espacial da produção tendo em vista sua relevância na formação de redes com as empresas fornecedoras de mercadorias e produtos, rede de concessionárias, empresas prestadoras de serviços e terceirizadas. São enfocadas as relações e conexões numa perspectiva multiescalar, com destaque para as relações locais, regionais, nacionais e internacionais. Este estudo também tem como objetivos específicos analisar a configuração espacial da cadeia automobilística brasileira, o processo de descentralização industrial e suas repercussões no setor automotivo; compreender o processo de internacionalização do Grupo Mitsubishi, com destaque para as ações da Mitsubishi Motors Corporation no Brasil e a consequente instalação da unidade montadora em Goiás; entender a formação das redes que partem e que convergem para a MMC Automotores do Brasil S.A., levando em conta as concessionárias/distribuidores, fornecedores, prestadores de serviços, empresas terceirizadas etc.; analisar os aspectos e elementos que formam o circuito espacial da produção e que permitem a inserção de Catalão em um espaço de fluxos, reforçando assim sua dinâmica econômica; identificar os impactos sócioespaciais do circuito espacial da montadora no âmbito regional (microrregião de Catalão) e local (Catalão). No desenvolvimento da pesquisa, utilizaram-se como procedimentos metodológicos: pesquisas bibliográficas e leituras, pesquisas de campo pautadas nas aplicações de roteiros de entrevistas semi-estruturados e de questionários para aos diretores da montadora, das empresas fornecedoras e prestadoras de serviços e aos funcionários residentes nas cidades da microrregião de Catalão (Anhanguera, Cumari, Davinópolis, Goiandira, Nova Aurora, Ouvidor e Três Ranchos) e aos moradores de Catalão, utilizando o Discurso do Sujeito Coletivo. A propositura de elementos norteadores para a realização de estudos no âmbito da Geografia, através do uso do conceito circuito espacial da produção, perpassa por uma análise geográfica sobre as redes que são firmadas pela montadora, enfocando o estabelecimento de um espaço de fluxos materiais e imateriais, devido a presença de diversas variáveis e elementos econômicos, sociais, tecnológicos, políticos, culturais, entre outros, que possibilitam conexões diversas e empreendidas em escala internacional, nacional, regional e local. Entre outros aspectos, o trabalho aponta a complexidade, intensidade e dinamicidade que o circuito espacial da produção da montadora traz ao lugar, através de mudanças e metamorfoses espaciais, levando Catalão a integrar um espaço de fluxos em que o local e o global interagem para a reprodução capitalista, culminando na produção de um novo espaço. A rede da MMC Automotores do Brasil S.A., ao aglutinar parcelas territoriais, reforça seu poder transformador do lugar em que está instalada, possibilitando aumentar seu raio de ação para áreas longínquas, através da intensificação de fluxos e potencialização do seu poder financeiro. Tanto as redes provenientes de diversas direções como as que partem da montadora possuem intensidades diferentes, são condutoras de intencionalidades múltiplas e transportam insumos, informações, técnicas e tecnologias que, ao chegarem ao lugar modifica-o, lhe imprime novos conteúdos que se segmentam em formas, significados e processos inseparáveis que permitem a contiguidade e reprodução do sistema capitalista localmente. Por fim, propõe-se algumas diretrizes teórico-metodológicas divididas em quatro eixos para se pensar o circuito espacial da produção, como conceito analítico da Geografia.

The thesis seeks to demonstrate that during the period between 1986 and 2006, some of the principal cities of the Spanish metropolitan system1, have undergone significant change in terms of their European competitiveness. It is suggested that in the case of Madrid and Barcelona in particular this change has been of such a magnitude to proportion them a much more important place within the European spatial configuration than that which they occupied in the mid-1980s. Empirical evidence is offered to support this conjecture. The thesis lies wholly within the framework of spatial planning at the European territorial scale.It charts the comparative ascent of the Spanish cities from the moment of Spain's entry into the European Union (EU) in 1986 against the background of the development of European spatial policy, increased economic integration across Europe, the increased importance of the 'territorial' dimension of EU cohesion policy and an eventual waning of the applicability of the terminology of 'core' and 'periphery' to describe European geographical location.Part One (Chapter 1) addresses the processes of urbanisation in general from a global perspective and then focuses on metropolitan growth in a number of different historical contexts from the start of the 19th Century. Parts Two (Chapters 2-5) and Three (Chapters 6-9) of the thesis carry out analyses at two contrasting but complementary spatial scales. Part Two examines the metropolitan growth processes in Spain, in the period since 1857, detecting the historical moments in which there were surges in the metropolitan populations of the seven cities of the metropolitan system. The dimensions of the spatial units of analysis corresponding to the seven Spanish metropolitan urban regions are described, based upon a methodology first developed by the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in the context of a transnational spatial planning project of the INTERREG community initiative2. These seven spatial units form the basis for a socio-economic analysis of the structure of the metropolitan system, drawing upon data principally from the 2001 Census. If by 1930 one of the key characteristics of Spain's urban system was having not just one but two cities (Madrid and Barcelona) belonging to the group of 27 cities across the world with populations in excess of 1 million inhabitants3, this same differentiation between the country's two largest cities and the remainder of the urban system is equally valid today. Spain's urban system remains clearly bicephalous in being dominated by these same two cities in terms of demographic and economic strength.Part Three begins by examining the evolution of European spatial policy against the background of an ever-enlarging European Union and changes with regard to the notion of cohesion - from a concept understood in terms of economic and social factors, to one in which the territorial dimension has become increasingly important. The European urban system is then critically examined through a number of key and influential studies, with particular regard to the rankings and hierarchies of metropolitan urban regions deriving there from and the changes in the placing of the Spanish metropolitan urban regions therein.Taking inspiration from the seminal contribution of Manuel Castells4 in the context of the structural changes resulting from the informational and technological revolution, the thesis seeks to replicate the concept of a 'space of flows'. This is carried out through a 'network analysis' approach drawing upon air passenger flows between some 28 European metropolitan urban regions of the EU15+2 group of countries, enabling the analysis of the interaction between these 28 cities. This methodology enables arriving at a number of descriptive indicators which in turn, through the application of a multi-dimensional scaling mathematical technique, permits comparing the functional and physical distances of each of the metropolitan urban regions from the centre of the 'conceptual space of air passenger flows' and the centre of gravity. The resulting map of the functional positioning of the cities offers a spatial vision of metropolitan Europe quite different to that based upon Cartesian coordinates. Such an approach enables demonstrating that cities such as Barcelona, Madrid, Helsinki, Lisbon and Athens, traditionally considered as physically peripheral to the European core area, appear to be more favourably positioned in functional terms. Furthermore in the case of Spain the results indicate that Barcelona lies closer to the centre of the conceptual 'space of air passenger flows' than Madrid.In light of this empirical evidence, together with the signs of increased economic integration across some parts of Spain, the prospects of Spain forming part of a wider European territorial concentration of flows and activities, and the recognition of the territorial capital of Madrid and Barcelona within recent EU spatial policy declarations, the thesis concludes in Part Four that these two metropolitan regions have undergone a clear consolidation and (re)positioning within the European metropolitan hierarchy.