Publications
Most recent
(Cottineau-Mugadza, 2025): In this chapter, I present an overview of patterns and regularities in city size distributions. Starting from a short history of early findings, I go on to present Zipf’s contribution, the plethora of empirical material which can be interpreted as a confirmation of the law and some models generating such a regular distribution. The deviations from the law and recent propositions to advance the study of urbanisation “beyond Zipf’s law” are also presented.
(San Millán et al., 2025): In this paper, we compute income inequality and residential segregation annually in all urban areas of the Netherlands from 2011 to 2022 and show they have remained stable or decreased in most cities. We analyse how income is distributed by percentile of the income distribution, how each percentile is segregated and at which geographical scale segregation occurs in different cities. Urban areas vary strongly: more unequal urban areas tend to be more segregated, but the same segregation levels can coexist with diverse inequality metrics.
(Cottineau-Mugadza et al., 2025): In this chapter, we reflect on the specificity of peer-review for data papers, with the experience gathered from Cybergeo, a scientific open access journal publishing geography articles, where a section dedicated to data papers was created in 2017.
(Roxburgh et al., 2025): In this piece, we propose a list of features that would greatly enhance population synthesis methods from the perspective of agent-based modelling. These include, but are not limited to: the attributes of agents, their location in space, the ways they make decisions and their behavioural dynamics. In the real-world, these aspects of everyday human life can be deeply interconnected, with these associations being highly consequential in shaping outcomes. Initialising synthetic populations in ways that fail to respect these covariances can therefore compromise model efficacy, potentially leading to biased and inaccurate simulation outcomes.
Peer reviewed articles
- on Economic Inequality, residential segregation and urban inequality: (Cottineau, Finance, et al., 2019) (Cottineau & Vanhoof, 2019) (Schneider & Cottineau, 2019) (Janssen et al., 2023) (Janssen et al., 2024) (San Millán et al., 2025)
- on Literature reviews and the history of urban studies: (Cottineau, 2017a) (Raimbault et al., 2021) (Cottineau, 2022c) (Janssen et al., 2023) (Achter et al., 2024) (Cottineau et al., 2024)
- on Urban scaling laws and systems of cities: (Pumain et al., 2015) (Cottineau et al., 2017) (Cura et al., 2017) (Cottineau, 2017a) (Finance & Cottineau, 2019) (Cottineau, Finance, et al., 2019)
- on Agent-based modelling: (Cottineau, Reuillon, et al., 2015) (Cottineau, Chapron, et al., 2015) (Chérel et al., 2015) (Raimbault et al., 2019) (Achter et al., 2024)
- on Urbanisation in the post-Soviet Space: (Cottineau, 2011b) (Cottineau, 2012) (Cottineau, Reuillon, et al., 2015) (Cottineau, Chapron, et al., 2015) (Cottineau, 2016) (Cottineau, 2017b)
- on the Geography of production: (Cottineau, Finance, et al., 2019) (Cottineau & Arcaute, 2020) (Brochard et al., 2022) (Askenazy & Cottineau, 2024)
- on Urban policy: (Schneider & Cottineau, 2019) (Cottineau et al., 2024)
Books
Edited book on inequalities in geographical space: (Cottineau & Vallée, 2022a)
Edited book on cities and inequalities: (Cottineau & Pumain, 2022a)
Book chapters
- In D. Rybsky (dir.), 2025, Compendium of Urban Complexity: (Cottineau-Mugadza, 2025)
- In C. Kosmopoulos & J. Schöpfel (dir.), 2025, Publier, partager, réutiliser les données de la recherche: les data papers et leurs enjeux: (Cottineau-Mugadza et al., 2025)
- In R. Harris, A. Heppenstall, & L. J. Wolf (Eds.), 2024, A research agenda for spatial analysis: (Cottineau, 2024b)
- In C. Cottineau & J. Vallée (Eds.), 2022, Inequalities in geographical space: (Cottineau & Vallée, 2022b) (Cottineau, 2022b)
- In C. Cottineau & D. Pumain (Eds.), 2022, Cities at the heart of inequalities: (Cottineau & Pumain, 2022b) (Cottineau, 2022a)
- In D. Pumain (Ed.), 2020, Theories and models of urbanization: Geography, economics and computing sciences: (Baffi & Cottineau, 2020)
- In D. Pumain (Ed.), 2019, Geographical modeling: Cities and territories: (Cottineau, Chapron, et al., 2019)
- In D. Pumain, C. Rozenblat, & E. Velasquez (Eds.), 2018, International and transnational perspectives on urban systems: (Cottineau & Frost, 2018)
Other
- My PhD Dissertation: (Cottineau, 2014a)
- Non-peer-reviewed articles: (Дружинин et al., 2010) (CoVprehension, 2020) (Roxburgh et al., 2025)
- Working Papers: (Cottineau & Morphet, 2016) (Barner et al., 2017) (Cottineau et al., 2018) (Cottineau-Mugadza et al., 2024) (Cottineau-Mugadza, 2024)
- Editorial: (Sarkar et al., 2024)
- Workshop repository: (Forgaci et al., n.d.)
- Book reviews: (Cottineau, 2011a) (Cottineau, 2014b) (Cottineau, 2017c) (Cottineau, 2020)
- Report: (Sousa et al., 2011)
- Commentaries: (Cottineau, 2024a)
Full list
Achter, S., Borit, M., Cottineau, C., Meyer, M., Polhill, J. G., & Radchuk, V. (2024). How to conduct more systematic reviews of agent-based models and foster theory development-taking stock and looking ahead. Environmental Modelling & Software, 173, 105867. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2023.105867
Askenazy, P., & Cottineau, C. (2024). The geography of collective bargaining in french multi-establishment companies. Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society. https://doi.org/10.1111/irel.12360
Baffi, S., & Cottineau, C. (2020). What is emerging? Understanding urbanisation dynamics in BRICS countries through a geographical approach, the case of russia and south africa. In D. Pumain (Ed.), Theories and models of urbanization: Geography, economics and computing sciences (pp. 209–234). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36656-8_12
Barner, M., Cottineau, C., Molinero, C., Salat, H., Stanilov, K., & Arcaute, E. (2017). Multiscale entropy in the spatial context of cities. arXiv Preprint arXiv:1711.09817. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1711.09817
Brochard, D., Cottineau, C., Didry, C., Dupuy, C., Giordano, D., & Simha, J. (2022). La négociation d’entreprise en pratiques-pluralité des configurations et stratégies des acteurs. Socio-économie Du Travail, 2021(10), 65–94. https://doi.org/10.48611/isbn.978-2-406-14086-3.p.0065
Chérel, G., Cottineau, C., & Reuillon, R. (2015). Beyond corroboration: Strengthening model validation by looking for unexpected patterns. PloS One, 10(9), e0138212. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0138212
Cottineau, C. (2011a). Baron m., cunningham-sabot e., grasland c., rivière d., van hamme g.(dir), 2010, villes et régions européennes en décroissance. Maintenir la cohésion territoriale, paris, lavoisier, série aménagement et gestion du territoire, 345 p. Cybergeo: European Journal of Geography. https://doi.org/10.4000/cybergeo.23623
Cottineau, C. (2011b). Processus de métropolisation dans l’espace frontalier post-soviétique: L’exemple de rostov-sur-le-don. Cybergeo: European Journal of Geography. https://doi.org/10.4000/cybergeo.24765
Cottineau, C. (2012). An intermediate system. Trajectories of russian cities between general dynamics and specific histories. Espace géographique (English Edition), 41(3), 247–265. https://shs.cairn.info/journal-espace-geographique-2012-3-page-266?lang=en
Cottineau, C. (2014a). L’évolution des villes dans l’espace post-soviétique: Observation et modélisations [PhD thesis, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne-Paris I]. https://theses.hal.science/tel-01167818
Cottineau, C. (2014b). Piketty t., 2013, le capital au XXIe siècle, seuil, coll.les livres du nouveau monde, 970 p. Cybergeo: European Journal of Geography. https://doi.org/10.4000/cybergeo.26329
Cottineau, C. (2016). A multilevel portrait of shrinking urban russia. Espace Populations Sociétés. Space Populations Societies, 2015/3-2016/1. https://doi.org/10.4000/eps.6123
Cottineau, C. (2017a). MetaZipf. A dynamic meta-analysis of city size distributions. PloS One, 12(8), e0183919. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0183919
Cottineau, C. (2017b). Peut-on estimer la singularité des villes (post-) soviétiques? Économie Régionale Et Urbaine, 1, 5–32. https://shs.cairn.info/revue-d-economie-regionale-et-urbaine-2017-1-page-5?lang=fr
Cottineau, C. (2017c). West g., 2017, scale. The universal laws of growth, innovation, sustainability, and the pace of life in organisms, cities, economies, and companies, new york, penguin press, 479 p. Cybergeo: European Journal of Geography. https://doi.org/10.4000/cybergeo.28543
Cottineau, C. (2020). Lahire b.(dir.), 2019, enfances de classe. De l’inégalité parmi les enfants, paris, seuil, 1232 p. Cybergeo: European Journal of Geography. https://doi.org/10.4000/cybergeo.33783
Cottineau, C. (2022a). Inequalities between cities. In C. Cottineau & D. Pumain (Eds.), Cities at the heart of inequalities (pp. 205–232). Wiley Online Library. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119986812.ch7
Cottineau, C. (2022b). Modeling inequalities in geographical space. In C. Cottineau & J. Vallée (Eds.), Inequalities in geographical space (pp. 151–180). John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781394188338.ch6
Cottineau, C. (2022c). What do analyses of city size distributions have in common? Scientometrics, 127(3), 1439–1463. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-021-04256-8
Cottineau, C. (2024a). Accommodating a durable community. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, 51(5), 1059–1062. https://doi.org/10.1177/23998083241246665
Cottineau, C. (2024b). Generative modelling. In R. Harris, A. Heppenstall, & L. J. Wolf (Eds.), A research agenda for spatial analysis (pp. 113–124). Elgar. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781802203233.00015
Cottineau, C., & Arcaute, E. (2020). The nested structure of urban business clusters. Applied Network Science, 5(1), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41109-019-0246-9
Cottineau, C., Chapron, P., Le Texier, M., & Rey-Coyrehourcq, S. (2019). Incremental territorial modeling. In D. Pumain (Ed.), Geographical modeling: Cities and territories (Vol. 2, pp. 95–123). Wiley Online Library. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119687290.ch4
Cottineau, C., Chapron, P., & Reuillon, R. (2015). Growing models from the bottom up. An evaluation-based incremental modelling method (EBIMM) applied to the simulation of systems of cities. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 18(4), 9. https://doi.org/10.18564/jasss.2828
Cottineau, C., Finance, O., Hatna, E., Arcaute, E., & Batty, M. (2019). Defining urban clusters to detect agglomeration economies. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, 46(9), 1611–1626. https://doi.org/10.1177/2399808318755146
Cottineau, C., & Frost, I. (2018). The russian urban system: Evolution engaged with transition. In D. Pumain, C. Rozenblat, & E. Velasquez (Eds.), International and transnational perspectives on urban systems (pp. 263–284). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7799-9_12
Cottineau, C., Hatna, E., Arcaute, E., & Batty, M. (2017). Diverse cities or the systematic paradox of urban scaling laws. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 63, 80–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2016.04.006
Cottineau, C., M., B., Benenson, I., Delloye, J., Hatna, E., Pumain, D., Sarkar, S., Tannier, C., & Ubarevičienė, R. (2024). The role of analytical models and their circulation in urban studies and policy. Urban Studies, 61(12). https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980241237410
Cottineau, C., & Morphet, R. (2016). Jean reynaud: Seer of space. CASA Working Paper 205. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/casa/publications/2016/feb/casa-working-paper-205
Cottineau, C., Perret, J., Reuillon, R., Rey-Coyrehourcq, S., & Vallée, J. (2018). An agent-based model to investigate the effects of social segregation around the clock on social disparities in dietary behaviour. CIST2018-Représenter Les Territoires/Representing Territories, 584–589.
Cottineau, C., & Pumain, D. (2022a). Cities at the heart of inequalities. John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119986812
Cottineau, C., & Pumain, D. (2022b). Major models of the spatial organization of urban societies. In C. Cottineau & D. Pumain (Eds.), Cities at the heart of inequalities (pp. 1–30). John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119986812.ch1
Cottineau, C., Reuillon, R., Chapron, P., Rey-Coyrehourcq, S., & Pumain, D. (2015). A modular modelling framework for hypotheses testing in the simulation of urbanisation. Systems, 3(4), 348–377. https://doi.org/10.3390/systems3040348
Cottineau, C., & Vallée, J. (2022a). Inequalities in geographical space. John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781394188338
Cottineau, C., & Vallée, J. (2022b). Introduction to inequalities in geographical space. In C. Cottineau & J. Vallée (Eds.), Inequalities in geographical space (pp. 1–35). John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781394188338.fmatter
Cottineau, C., & Vanhoof, M. (2019). Mobile phone indicators and their relation to the socioeconomic organisation of cities. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 8(1), 19. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi8010019
Cottineau-Mugadza, C. (2024). Economic inequality and economic segregation: A systematic review of causal pathways. SocArXiv Preprints. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/qxket
Cottineau-Mugadza, C. (2025). City size distributions. In D. Rybski (Ed.), Compendium of urban complexity (pp. 1–20). Springer Cham. dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-82666-5_1
Cottineau-Mugadza, C., Forgaci, C., Janssen, K. M. J., Li, B., Zhang, S., & Zhang, X. (2024). Guidelines and open-source toolbox for systematic literature reviews in the field of urbanism. SocArXiv Preprints. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/w5b8v
Cottineau-Mugadza, C., Kosmopoulos, C., & Pumain, D. (2025). Évaluer un data paper, l’exemple de cybergeo. In C. Kosmopoulos & J. Schöpfel (Eds.), Publier, partager, réutiliser les données de la recherche : Les data papers et leurs enjeux (pp. 113–122). Presses Universitaires du Septentrion. https://www.septentrion.com/fr/book/?gcoi=27574100316700
CoVprehension, C. (2020). Understanding the current COVID-19 epidemic: One question, one model. Review of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation. https://rofasss.org/2020/04/30/covprehension/
Cura, R., Cottineau, C., Swerts, E., Antonio Ignazzi, C., Bretagnolle, A., Vacchiani-Marcuzzo, C., & Pumain, D. (2017). The old and the new: Qualifying city systems in the world with classical models and new data. Geographical Analysis, 49(4), 363–386. https://doi.org/10.1111/gean.12129
Finance, O., & Cottineau, C. (2019). Are the absent always wrong? Dealing with zero values in urban scaling. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, 46(9), 1663–1677. https://doi.org/10.1177/2399808318785634
Forgaci, C., Cottineau, C., Janssen, K. M. J., Francisco Conceicao, J., Alvarez, M. G., Petrović, A., Kubilay, S., Cannatella, D., San Millán Tejedor, J., Wilczynska, A., & Rbanism Community. (n.d.). Geospatial Data Carpentry for Urbanism [Computer software]. https://github.com/carpentries-incubator/r-geospatial-urban
Janssen, K. M. J., Cottineau, C., Kleinhans, R., & Bueren, E. van. (2023). Gentrification and the origin and destination of movers: A systematic review. Tijdschrift Voor Economische En Sociale Geografie, 114(4), 300–318. https://doi.org/10.1111/tesg.12581
Janssen, K. M. J., Cottineau-Mugadza, C., Kleinhans, R., & Bueren, E. van. (2024). Spatial dynamics of incoming movers and the state-led gentrification process: The case of rotterdam. Population, Space and Place, OnlineFirst. https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2851
Pumain, D., Swerts, E., Cottineau, C., Vacchiani-Marcuzzo, C., Ignazzi, C. A., Bretagnolle, A., Delisle, F., Cura, R., Lizzi, L., & Baffi, S. (2015). Multilevel comparison of large urban systems. Cybergeo: European Journal of Geography. https://doi.org/10.4000/cybergeo.26730
Raimbault, J., Chasset, P.-O., Cottineau, C., Commenges, H., Pumain, D., Kosmopoulos, C., & Banos, A. (2021). Empowering open science with reflexive and spatialised indicators. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, 48(2), 298–313. https://doi.org/10.1177/2399808319870816
Raimbault, J., Cottineau, C., Texier, M. L., Néchet, F. L., & Reuillon, R. (2019). Space matters: Extending sensitivity analysis to initial spatial conditions in geosimulation models. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 22(4). https://doi.org/10.18564/jasss.4136
Roxburgh, N., Paolillo, R., Filatova, T., Cottineau, C., Paolucci, M., & Polhill, G. (2025). Outlining some requirements for synthetic populations to initialise agent-based models. Review of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 2025(1). https://rofasss.org/2025/01/29/popsynth
San Millán, J., Cottineau‐Mugadza, C., & Van Ham, M. (2025). The Economic Urban Divide: A Detailed Study of Income Inequality and Segregation in Dutch Urban Areas (2011–2022). Tijdschrift Voor Economische En Sociale Geografie, tesg.70011. https://doi.org/10.1111/tesg.70011
Sarkar, S., Cottineau-Mugadza, C., & Wolf, L. J. (2024). Spatial inequalities and cities: A review. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, OnlineFirst. https://doi.org/10.1177/23998083241263422
Schneider, C., & Cottineau, C. (2019). Decentralisation versus territorial inequality: A comparative review of english city region policy discourse. Urban Science, 3(3), 90. https://doi.org/10.3390/urbansci3030090
Sousa, S. Ávila de, Cottineau, C., Dietersforfer, L., Fernández Águeda, B., Gonul, D., Hoemke, M., Jaroszewska, E., Lella, I., Mykhnenko, V., Prada Trigo, J., et al. (2011). Mapping urban shrinkage in europe. Training school final report. EU-COST action TU0803.
Дружинин, А. Г., Кирсанова, Н. В., & Котино (Cottineau), К. (C. ). (2010). Идентификация региональных метрополий юга россии (картографическое моделирование на основе ГИС-технологии). Южно-Российский Форум, 153–157.