Paul Gourdon is a research engineer (CNRS) specializing in data production, processing, and analysis. A geographer by training, his thesis focused on the circulation of urban models and territorial cooperation in Europe, questioning the spatiality of political knowledge concerning ways of governing cities. He has also worked on small and medium-sized cities in France (PAVIM project) and Europe (TRADEVE project), focusing in particular on the demographic trajectories and social characterization of these cities at the inter-urban level. From a methodological point of view, he is interested in the articulation of qualitative and quantitative approaches, network analysis, spatial analysis, and textual analysis.