The Nature of Cities

Urban analysis at the level of the individual city has seen a number of theories and models purporting to explain the internal spatial structure. This chapter provides three major views on the nature of cities. The first line strives to explain ecological patterns of land-use organisation through three major models, namely: the concentric zone; the sector; the multiple-nuclei. The second strives to explain the determinants of the social areas existing within the city. The third major approach to understand urban spatial structure is based on micro-economic considerations of household behaviour. The chapter provides a synthesis of the major tenets of these traditional approaches and in particular attempt a critical evaluation of the assumptions and hypotheses that underlie their formulation. Factorial ecology uses the multivariate techniques of factor analysis to dimension a larger group of socio-economic characteristics of people over small areas of the urban space.