Abstract EN:

The study of social spaces consists in examining the material life and the organisation of a human group with regard to the areas that constitute the means of existence of the said group. Such a step implies, firts of all, the analysis of the peopling and the forms of occupation of the area which is inhabited, and above all, highlighting the relations which give both life and social content to his space. With this perspective in mind, this esay wiches to demonstrate how, at the pre-industrial era, spaces formed themselves into a hierarchy. Elementary units lay at the base of the hierarchical organisation with family entities their cultivated lands. These units grouped together into communities which, in turn, were integrated into a network relationships around large villages and towns at different levels, ranging from the small district to the larger one and the region. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the roannais, situated where the france of the north meets the south, provides a good example of an "area" which was alraedy organised around a central point, roanne, a medium-sized town. As early as the end of the pre-industrial era, the town, acting as a centre, gave life to regional structures which were superimposed on a varied geographical zone, and in his way, created a "lived-in space".