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Garmy [GAR 12] in his work on settlement systems during the Roman era. The
variety of their profiles and functioning modes thus leads him to characterize the
settlement units of the Languedoc according to a precise functional typology that
cannot be reduced to a simple city/village dichotomy. However, the second case is
adequate for the hypothesis of a semantic continuity between these two types of
objects, i.e. if it is assumed that the objects are of the same nature and
characterizable by the same types of properties and relationships. Simple differences
in the properties (for example, the hierarchical level measured by the size of the
population or the level of the existing trade) are enough then to account for their
differences. This is often the case when geographers or economists aim to model the
emergence of cities and systems of cities from an initial situation in which only
agricultural villages with few differences existed [AXT 06, BAT 01, SAN 97,
SCH 13].
1.1.2.
Qualification of the objects from an ontological perspective: “bona fide”
versus “fiat” objects
Facing the question of falling under the scope of spatial analysis, the challenge is
to ensure consistency between the entities of interest in “reality”, those that are
observable in the empirical world, and those that are appropriate to introduce in
the information system that is implemented to respond to the questions raised. These
entities can be
simple
(an individual, a road, a parking or a river) or
composite
(a household, a subdivision, a city or a hydrographic system). This distinction
between a
simple
or a
composite
object depends on the thematic domain or may be
discussed. The composite object is composed of simple objects, themselves having a
meaning relative to the question asked (note that from the theoretical point of view,
it would be always possible to decompose down to the atom; the position adopted
here consists of adapting the level of decomposition to the objective and in
discussing the choice made). The information allowing building these entities often
originates from various sources.
Any object mobilized during a research is a
built
object
in the sense that it is
conceptualized to meet an objective. Some of these objects are close to the common
sense, in the sense that they are concepts used in everyday life, corresponding in
general to physical entities, for example, individuals, buildings, streets, rivers and
lakes [PEU 98], whereas others correspond to more abstract concepts referring to
more elaborated constructions. Households, cities and countries are some examples.
We propose to start with the distinction proposed by the philosophers Smith and
