UNE THÉORIE GÉOGRAPHIQUE POUR LA LOI DE ZIPF

An important literature has focused on then rank size rule and the Zipf’s law without delivering significant results. Among the reasons for this low scientific productivity, one can find ommisions and misunderstandings between different scientific fields, the generalization of physical and mathematical models abusively applied to social science fields and the pure quality of data concerning city size and city growth. In this paper, we use empirical studies throughout the world in order to build a geographical theory on urban systems’evolution. We use a comparative method to examine cities dynamics.