Henry Bakis

Henry Bakis is professor emeritus of geography at the University of Montpellier. His research has mainly focused on industry, firms and ICT geography (information and communications technologies).[1]

Biography

Bakis plays an active role in the International Geographical Union commission dedicated to ICT: executive secretary, chairman or vice-chair of the commissions dedicated to ICT (since 1985),[2] He founded the Communication Newsletter Geography (1985) [3] and the journal Netcom (1987) on communication and territories.[4]

He was researcher at the French CNET [5] from 1978 to 1995. He was associated research director at University of Paris IV-Sorbonne from 1991 to 1996; and professor of economic geography at the University of Montpellier (1996-2015).

Scope of work

Multinationals, technology and spatial organization

During the 1970s Bakis studied the consequences of industrial policies, industrial subcontracting [6] and multinational firms activities in the French regions (IBM Case study).[7] He then turned his attention to telecommunications networks of large enterprises[8] first from the IBM case.[9] More generally, the relationship between organizations, network technologies and geographical space are the center of his analysis.[10] He "has contributed greatly to promote this approach of the geography, both within French geographers as within the International Geographical Union.".[11]

Geography of ICT

Since the end of the 1970s Bakis calls for the study of telecommunications, ICT systems and digital network technologies from the geographical point of view.[12] He "did pioneering work through important scientific production".[13] For Bakis, telecommunications is "one of the levers of regional planning to open up the territories, improve economic performance, and allow various forms of teleactivities, a new connection between the local and the global level".[14] He worked on the digital development of territories following the development of the Internet and digital infrastructures.[15]

Spatial heterogeneity

The work of Bakis demonstrates that ICT does not lead to the "death of distance", or "the end of geography " in spite of the assertions of some futurologists as Richard O'Brien,[16] Frances Cairncross,[17] Kenichi Ohmae.[18] ICT would minimize the importance of geographical locations, the development of networks but simultaneously leads to greater spatial heterogeneity with enhanced polarization and metropolisation. The development of infrastructure networks is closely related to demographic, social and economic pre-existing environment. Bakis dismissed the unfounded hopes of positive spatial effects. Bakis wrote that despite the development of infrastructure and communications services "space continues to be differentiated and this is one of the reasons why networks are heterogeneous".[19]

He pleads also for the development of electro-sensitive fog free areas (implementation of the precautionary principle).[20]

Geocybergeography

Bakis is considered as the "inventor of the concept of geocybergeography".[21] He considers that human beings still live in a geographical classical space but this space is modified by the use of ICT. Today, it includes new attributes making it more complex. The cyberspace of electronic communication does not substitute nor overlap classical space; instead, it comes to mingle closely with the later at all scales. Bakis termed geocyberspace this contemporary form of geographic space in which are modified: the distance (apparent reduction), time (ubiquitous for some services) and costs.[22]

Main publications

Books

Translations from French

Journals, papers and book chapters

Video

Other

References

External links

Notes

  1. Suzanne Paré (1978) ; Paul Claval (1995) ; Cassé Marie-Claude (1995); Gabriel Dupuy (2000).
  2. IGU (2014), C12.14 Geography of the Global Information Society Activities 2012-13, http://igu-online.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/C12-14-Geography-of-the-Global-Information-Society-2012-13.pdf; Aharon Kelerman & Mark Wilson (2008), http://www.nuim.ie/staff/dpringle/igu/c15/Global_Information_Report.pdf
  3. Newsletter Geography Communication, Centre National d'Etudes Telecommunications, Issy-les-Moulineaux, ISSN 0988-6222 - . http://www.worldcat.org/title/lettre-dinformation/oclc/474469827&referer=brief_results
  4. Networks and Communication Studies, ISSN 0987-6014, http://www.netcom-journal.com/
  5. Centre national d'étude des télécommunications - presently France Telecom Research & Development.
  6. H. Bakis (1975), 'La sous-traitance dans l’industrie', Annales de Géographie, Paris, pp. 297-317.
  7. H. Bakis (1977),IBM Une multinationale régionale; H. Bakis (1988), Entreprise, espace, télécommunication
  8. H. Bakis, R. Abler & Ed. M. Roche (Eds, 1993), Corporates networks, international telecommunications and interdependence. Perspectives from geography and information systems
  9. H. Bakis (1980), The communications of larger firms and their implications on the emergence of a new world industrial order. A case study: I.B.M.’s global data network; H. Bakis (1987), 'Telecommunications and the Global Firm', in F. E. Ian Hamilton, Industrial Change in Industrial Economies, Croom Helm, London, pp. 130-160.
  10. H. Bakis, Ed. M. Roche (2000), ‘Geography, Technology and Organization’, in Ed. M. Roche, M. J. Blaine (Eds), Information technology in Multinational Enterprises, pp. 125– 152
  11. Ph. Boulanger (2013), 'Pour une géopolitique des médias', La Revue européenne des Médias, N°26-27 Printemps - Eté, http://la-rem.eu/2013/03/21/pour-une-geopolitique-des-medias/
  12. Tokyo lectures at Pre-Congress IGU Meetings, published in ‘‘Annales des Géographie’’ (1980) and ‘’Geographical Research Forum’‘ (1982)
  13. A. Cheneau Loquay (2010) p . 213, note 3). Other assessments: "The geography disregarded - effectively before Bakis - the telecommunication" (Karlheinz Hottes 1987, p. 182) ; "The role of Henry Bakis was essential in the short history of this geography ... [he] seeks to convince the geography of the urgently importance to study the informatio-communicative dimensions of space" (Emmanuel Eveno, 2004, p. 98).
  14. Cheneau-Locquay A. (2010), P. 1
  15. Bakis H. (2010), DigiPolis 26 et 27 Mai, SEM Numerica à Montbéliard)
  16. Global Financial Integration: The End of Geography, 1992. See: Richard O'Brien (economist)
  17. The death of distance, 2001. "Wireless (...) is killing rent, putting the world in our pockets" (p. 2 ), "The communications revolution is democratic and profoundly liberating, leveling the imbalance between wide and small, rich and poor. The death of distance, overall, shoulds be welcomed and enjoyed." ( p. 6)
  18. The Borderless World Power and Strategy in an Interlinked Economy 1999
  19. Quoted by Milton Santos (1997),La nature de l'espace. Technique et temps, raison et émotion, p. 189
  20. BAKIS H. (2016), 'Pour l’aménagement d’espaces sans brouillard électromagnétique', in Paché G., El Khayat M. (2016), Invitation aux flux. Entre transport et espace, PUP, pp. 143-150.
  21. " ... which tends to reconsider the geographical space and to integrate new social activities in virtual spaces interconnected and raised by technologies of networks and flows", Philippe Boulanger (2013), The European Journal Media , N°. 26-27, http://la-rem.eu / 2013/03/21/pour-une-geopolitique-des-medias/
  22. H. Bakis (1997) , p. 17-53 , in E. Roche M. & H. Bakis (eds.) ; H. Bakis (2007), NETCOM, Vol. 21 , N° 3-4 , p. http://www.netcom-journal.com/volumes/articlesV213/285_296bakisgeocyberspace.pdf; H.Bakis (2013) , 'First approach to the notion of geocyberspace' http://hbgeo.upv.univ-montp3.fr/geographie-des-tic/le-geocyberespace-geocyberspace/
  23. "86 works in 199 publications in 5 languages and 1,406 library holdings"
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