pôles directionnels

English translation: business and administration centres

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

French term or phrase:	pôles directionnels
English translation:	business and administration centres
Entered by:	Carol Gullidge

16:23 Nov 28, 2008

French to English translations [PRO]
Social Sciences - Social Science, Sociology, Ethics, etc. / urbanization, mobility and social exclusion

French term or phrase: pôles directionnels

Qui correspond comme le dit Bernard Lepetit au seul réseau général de circulation urbaine : « Grands ensembles, villes nouvelles, nouveaux villages, zones industrielles, centres commerciaux, ******pôles directionnels******, campus : la ville s’édifie selon une typologie dont chacun des éléments renvoie moins aux autres qu’à la conjoncture propre qui l’a vu naître et à la localisation dans un espace éclaté.

_____

in an article about mobility and social exclusion. So far, I have "Large complexes, new towns, new villages, industrial estates, shopping centres, xxxx centres (?)" but am stuck on this term - which seems to take on a different meaning depending on the context in which it is found (poles apart, you could say!).
The context here is urbanization, and nothing to do with poles or directions.
Could "directionnel" here have anything to do with business and management? If so, I can find no corroboration of this in dictionnaries or elsewhere. Could this be a "management centre", or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Many thanks for your help!

Carol Gullidge KudoZ activity Questions: 352 (1 open) (1 without valid answers) (3 closed without grading) Answers: 2710 United Kingdom
Local time: 17:21

business and management centres

Explanation:
*

Selected response from:

kashew
France
Local time: 18:21

Grading comment

many thanks kashew, and everybody else! This was really hard, as so many of these terms can have other connotations (eg, administrative centre = seat of local government) and "management and business" is often associated with University faculties...
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

target destinations

Karen Vincent-Jones (X)

business and management centres

kashew

administrative centres

B D Finch

Business park

ArabellaCE (X)

hubs

ormiston

competency clusters

John Peterson

Summary of reference entries provided

sites.univ-provence.fr/wmip/mip_lettre/e_letters_pdf/MIP_Provence_lettre_13.pdf

kashew

A bit more evidence for 'business centre'

Alain Pommet

Discussion entries: 3

Answers

21 mins confidence:

competency clusters

Explanation:
Very much a guess, though the term crops up in an urban context (and within organisations as parts of the business where specific skills are grouped together - presumably for synergy?).

Could work if you can see the city as an "organisation" - don't know if they could include science and business parks (where "pôle" often crops up as a term).

John Peterson
Local time: 17:21
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 19

Notes to answerer

Asker: many thanks John for the suggestion. I'm trying to get my head around this, although, so far, I've found this definition: "A Competency Cluster is a list of competencies organised in broad groups " Worth a try though :)

36 mins confidence:

hubs

Explanation:
it's all I can think of in this context, i.e. thoroughfares linking A to B to C etc. that form clusters of traffic, but I don't really see how it fits into your list unless you keep it vague.

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Note added at 55 mins (2008-11-28 17:18:59 GMT)
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just maybe like a spaghetti junction, with through traffic heading to particular destinations

ormiston
Local time: 18:21
Works in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 8

Notes to answerer

Asker: many thanks ormiston! I think of a hub more as a centre - which is along the lines of what I was proposing. But it's the "directionnel" part that is really stumping me...

3 hrs confidence:

target destinations

Explanation:
I think this means specific features that attract visitors- it's a common term in regional planning documents.

Reference: http://www2.ville.montreal.qc.ca/ocpm/pdf/19/16b.pdf
Reference: http://www.regionaltourism.com.au/ARTRC/destinations/dest_pr...

Karen Vincent-Jones (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:21
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English

Notes to answerer

Asker: many thanks Karen! I was thinking along the lines of a more specific built-up area, along the lines of the others in the list, but that doesn't mean this isn't also worth considering! (although the "target destinations" in the 2nd link refer to target tourist destinations - which does rather rule these out)

16 hrs confidence:

administrative centres

Explanation:
"Direction" being management, but one would not call them "management centres" in English.

Cf.
"Pôle directionnel et commercial, il s’étend au sud de Rome, à moins de 15 mn de la gare Termini en métro. L’origine de l’EUR remonte à 1937, ..."
www.hotels-rome.fr/fr/hotel-rome.asp?id=846

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Note added at 17 hrs (2008-11-29 10:12:22 GMT)
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Actually, the Rome ref is not a very good one, the main reason I included it was that it neatly put together "directionnel et commercial" and if you Google "commercial and administrative centre" you will find '000s of ghits. This helps to confirm that it is not just about public administration.

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Note added at 17 hrs (2008-11-29 10:13:45 GMT)
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i.e. business administration and public administration - office work in general ...

B D Finch
France
Local time: 18:21
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 78

Notes to answerer

Asker: many thanks BD! "Management centres" does exist, but administrative centres sounds much more convincing... Btw, I'd already found that Rome link, but could find no explanation of what the term actually is...

19 hrs confidence:

business and management centres

Explanation:
*

kashew
France
Local time: 18:21
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 12

Grading comment

3 days 7 hrs confidence:

Business park

Explanation:
maybe this is missing one yr looking for out of all those purpose built out-of-town complexes....
maybe I've been watching the Simpsons too much, but try a google search on this term and you'll quickly see what I mean..!.
hope this helps
See e.g www.businessparks.net/ or www.Business Parks i-uk.com

ArabellaCE (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:21
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 4

Notes to answerer

Asker: many thanks Arabella! But I think this is probably much the same as "industrial estates", which I already have.

Reference comments

1 hr peer agreement (net): +1

Reference: sites.univ-provence.fr/wmip/mip_lettre/e_letters_pdf/MIP_Provence_lettre_13.pdf

Reference information:
Marseille (extract)
La première phase de l'opération, en cours de réalisation,
s'appuie sur la restructuration de trois pôles de
développement : la Joliette, pôle international d'affaires, le
pôle Saint-Charles - Porte d'Aix, futur CENTRE DIRECTIONNEL,
et le secteur Saint-Jean, pôle d'échanges méditerranéens,
et fait une large part à la reconquête des espaces publics.
A terme, le nouveau CENTRE DIRECTIONNEL marseillais comprendra
350 000 m2 de bureaux, 210 000 m2 de services
d'accompagnement et 140 000 m2 d'équipements universitaires
et culturels...

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Note added at 1 hr (2008-11-28 17:49:41 GMT)
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Hi! Your business and management centre could be right. Maybe add academic.

kashew
France
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 12

Note to reference poster

Asker: many thanks kashew! Your reference does indeed point in that direction. That's amazing, as it was only a hard-earned guess!

16 hrs

Reference: A bit more evidence for 'business centre'

Reference information:
La basse vallée du Var doit devenir le pôle directionnel de la conurbation, en recevant un centre d'affaire branché sur l'aéroport et de nombreux services publics délocalisés depuis le centre-ville (centre administratif départemental).
http://books.google.fr/books?id=pgFezU82NF0C&pg=PA84&lpg=PA8...

And also including local government offices (préfecture?) and services.

Alain Pommet
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 20

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