Teaching and research in urban geography at the University of Lausanne : a model at the beginning of a new century

space, according to Brian IL. Berry's famous expression (1964) «cities as Systems within a System of cities». Thus, the focus on the dynamic study of the general characteristics of the object «town» in an urban system of dissymetric interdependencies at a regional, national or global scale (Pumain 1997) was followed by the study of cities as physiognomic and socio-economic entities.This is differentiated through frameworks that are morphological, structure-functional and socio-cultural, with the emphasis on the study of urban land¬ scapes. In other words, «cities amongst networks and territories» (Saint-Julien 2002).