ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of the book. This book shows the ways in which elements of the behavioural and structural approaches can be combined in order to understand the city. The treatment of the urban has varied. The ecological approach grew out of the work of the Chicago-based sociologists in the early part of this century. The neo-classical approach takes its basic orientation from neo-classical economics which pictures the economy as a harmonious system in which firms seek to maximise profits and households maximise their net benefits (termed utility). The structuralist approach is not one approach but a number of different strands. Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century commentators, perhaps overwhelmed by the scale and pace of urbanisation, tended to view the city as an independent unit of enquiry. They thought it legitimate to append the adjective 'urban' to all manner of things.
