ABSTRACT
This chapter develops a framework for the analysis of suburbanization as a geographic process. It by no means fills all the theoretical blanks concerning spatial processes under capitalism, nor provides the necessary historical evidence to sustain. The chapter lists the factors contributing to suburbanization – whether couched in Marxist theory or not – and approach the problem systematically, probing the various causal elements and establishing basic principles of analysis to link suburbanization to the structure of capitalism. Suburbanization is clearly a process of enormous complexity, forming one part of the entire urbanization process, one aspect of the social whole. Spatial differentiation is a universal characteristic of capitalist urbanization, although its degree and form depend on the specific conditions of different societies. The discussion of spatial differentiation is rather a formalistic shell until combine it with decentralization in a model which more realistically recreates the historical spiral of 'functional decongestion'.
