Digital data, graph theory and spatial modeling allow us to apply the concepts of centralities and hierarchies to a wide variety of spatial situations.

The authors of this book offer insight into centralities and hierarchies within networks and territories at different scales and temporalities and for different socio-spatial phenomena. The first part of the book explores the contribution of data from cell phones and social networks to understanding the centralities and hierarchies of urban space within a circumscribed temporality. The second part uses network analysis – ecological networks, media networks and scientific knowledge networks – to propose indicators of spatial organization that reveal the centralities and hierarchies of spatial systems. Finally, in the third part, the territorial processes behind the formation of centralities and hierarchies are presented from a long-term perspective.