ABSTRACT
Spatial analysis of Mexico City reveals distinctive zones that characterize broadly the social and economic structure of the Megacity. This chapter distinguishes the overall defining areas of the Megacity that include the urban core, large ring, Chaleo and surrounding poverty zones, and semi-urban periphery and gradated transition zones. Urbanism/familism reflects the adaptation of the family to the urban environment at various points in the family life cycle. In the ethnicity clusters, there is an urban core but it is shifted to the lower part of the Federal District. The chapter discusses the key zones in terms of their relevance to the broad metropolitan picture. The factor analysis differs from cluster analysis in its objective of sorting variance into new combined variables, that is factors, whereas cluster analysis seeks to group similar zones hierarchically based evenly on variables. The methodology utilized is cluster analysis applied in a casewise manner, with further descriptive comparisons of the cluster-zones.
