Four years of urban research 2001-2004.

Summary Designed to promote multidisciplinary fundamental research, the Action Concertée Incitative Ville (ACIV) created by the French Ministry of Research aimed to renew the issues at stake in order to better understand contemporary urban issues, the transformations underway and to anticipate future developments. This book provides an inventory of the research supported during the four years of ACIV programming. The two volumes bring together 143 contributions from "established" teams, "young" researchers, and doctoral students, demonstrating the abundance and richness of themes, issues, methods, and fields. These contributions, which report on research financed by ACIV and the thesis grants it has supported, are organized around six themes: "Urban Forms, Cultures and Modes of", "Social and Civic Cohesion", "Changes in Scale, Recomposition of Territorial Systems and", "Urbanistic Cultures": from the sources of urban history to sustainable urban development", "Physical Environments, Urban Environments and", "Management, Management and Technical Systems". The postface opens up a critical and prospective reflection "for several" on the future of urban research.