ABSTRACT
Although place utility has been posited as a major component of behavioral conceptualizations of intra-urban migration processes, specification of place utility in empirical and operational terms has not generally been accomplished. 2 One task of a series of complementary intra-urban migration research efforts in which the authors are involved has been to examine approaches to operationalizing the concept of place utility. 3 The design of those efforts is tailored to fit within the ultimate goal of developing general models of residential site selection which incorporate well-grounded behavioral principles relevant to intra-urban migration processes. As a practical matter, although a household level of aggregation would be desirable, it is recognized that an ecological approach which focusses upon areal units within the city must be taken, given the restrictions imposed by available (or non-available) data. Thus, such models must employ variables 170acting as surrogates for behavior at a macro-scale, and be aggregative in nature. 4
