ABSTRACT
Economic growth and development are inherently uneven. They vary across time and territory. Most of the classical social theorists recognized and incorporated both time and space dimensions in their writings about economic change. In distinguishing between place poverty Mid person poverty, contemporary theorists have focused on explanations of uneven development across space. Virtually all rural and regional development theories are shaped by a common set of assumptions about the spatial distribution of poverty. Neoclassical economics in its most generic sense has focused on the spatial implications of economic growth by positing that labor and capital are mobile and will tend to move to areas with highest return, thus equalizing returns to production factors. Central place theory provides an explanation for the spatial distribution of cities and rural hinterlands and it may also yield insight into the level of well-being that results in each place in the hierarchy.
