ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that some of the hypotheses of transition, adopted in particular by geographers, have obscured our understanding of socio-spatial change more than they have enlightened it. It argues that the period on which most research has been concentrated is probably the least interesting with regard to change, and that people have been too concerned with quantitative methodology at the expense of studying the mechanisms of change. A further criticism of the status-reversal hypothesis is that it distracts our attention from a much more fundamental change which took place in the form of any city during the nineteenth century. It is clear that the spatial segregation of status groups did not begin suddenly in 1800, but the awareness of segregation, the attitudes towards it and the scale at which it occurred did all evolve during the century.
