The Structure of Urban Systems / / John Marshall.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press eBook-Package Archive 1933-1999
• VerfasserIn: Marshall, John,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2019]; ©1989
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Series: Heritage
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (404 p.)

As the world’s population is increasingly concentrated in urban centres, urban systems analysis has become a critical field of research – one that overlaps the traditional academic territories of geography, economics, and regional science. John Marshall defines urban systems analysis as a study of the spatial organization of networks of urban centres at regional, national, and international scales. In this introduction to the subject he presents a framework for its study.Marshall maintains that the study of the structure and development of urban systems should be guided by a principle-based framework in which the themes of location, economic functions, and population size are in the foreground. He outlines how urban systems analysis seeks to provide ‘insight into the roles performed by urban centres as elements of the gran process of settlement and development of the earth by humankind.’

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- 1. Fundamental concepts -- 2. World urbanization: a historical outline -- 3. Urban functions and the economic classification of cities -- 4. Industrial diversification -- 5. Central place theory: the spatial structure of local trade -- 6. Bridging the gap: techniques linking theory with observations -- 7. The problem of hierarchical structuring -- 8. A theory that failed: central places according to Lösch -- 9. Cities and long-distance trade: the mercantile model -- 10. The analysis of city growth rates -- 11. Rank-size relationships and population concentration -- References -- Index of cities -- Subject index