TransMonDyn

The TransMonDyn project started in January 2011 and will go one until the end of 2014. The project is about the evolution and transformation of settlement systems over different periods, from shorter to longer time span (several millennia). The aim is to identify generic processes operating in various parts of the world and at various periods of time, so as to distinguish comparable evolutions from those tied to a particular context.
The scientific challenge consists then in identifying the appropriate level of abstraction at which the comparisons between various kinds of transitions in settlement systems are meaningful. A toolbox of concepts and models, from the most general to the most specific, will be developed to facilitate comparison, with a particular focus on interplay between environmental constraints, spatial interactions and social innovation. Geographers, archaeologists, historians, linguists, ecologists, statisticians, and computer scientists from France and US are participating. Main partners are: UMR Géographie-cités in Paris, MSHE in Besançon and UMR Dynamique du Langage in Lyon.
Direction : Lena Sanders