A Theory of Location for Cities
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2201186 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Edward Ullman, Edward L Ullman (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1941 |
| Volume | 46 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 853-864 |
| Publication date | 1941-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Journal of Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-9602 • E-ISSN: 1537-5390 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/218800 |
| OpenAlex | W2043265862 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 73 |
Many studies have shown that cities are not scattered over the earth illogically, but a general theory of location has been lacking. The orderly spacing of towns as service centers forms a basis for a settlement-distribution theory. Service centers range in size from hamlets performing a few simple functions up to large cities providing specialized services for a large tributary region composed of the service areas of smaller towns. Thus, in an entirely uniform land the larger the town, the larger its tributary area should be. On the basis of a South German "norm" of areal organization Christaller has worked out deductively the central-place theory for distribution of settlements. He sets up typical settlements sizes, determines the normal number of towns in each class, as well as the spacing of the centers, and the area and population of their tributary areas. The theory applies better to agricultural areas than to industrial districs. It is not static but changes to fit changes in underlying conditions, particularly transportation. The system also varies from place to place in the world in line with population density, type of agriculture, governmental organization, and many other factors. These underlying regional differences make possible comparisons between central-place systems in the United States and elsewhere. After further refinement some form of the theory should provide a logical framework for study of existing distributions and perhaps for planning optimum spacing of new settlements
Archaeology · Business · Cartography · Civil engineering · Distribution (mathematics) · Economic geography · Economics · Economy · Geography · German · Human settlement · Land use · Population · Regional science · Service (business) · Settlement (finance) · Sociology · Tributary · Demography · Engineering · Land Use and Ecosystem Services · Mathematics · Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis · Urbanization and City Planning
Lapa
Spatial characteristics of transportation hubs
Settlement systems in the evolution
L’Amérique du Nord des géographes
Análisis de los centros primados vinculados al turismo en el Parque Nacional Puyehue
Las especializaciones e interrelaciones productivas como factores de desarrollo en la Patagonia chilena
Space and/or Time
Centralité et concentration
Retheorizing Economic Geography
Environmentalism and Determinism
A dominance tree approach to systems of cities
Exploring Crowd Travel Demands Based on the Characteristics of Spatiotemporal Interaction between Urban Functional Zones
Central Locations across Spatial Scales
The relevance of city size to the vulnerability of surrounding rural areas
The Emergence of Geographical Economics
City origins
Digital food delivery platforms and the spatial inequality of urban food access
Quantitative evidence for leapfrogging in urban growth
Regional differences in resilience of social and physical systems
A Big City as an Independent Central Place System, a Case Study of Moscow
Nodal Region Concept in Geography and Related Sciences
The urban growth machine, central place theory and access to open space
Form Follows Function? Linking Morphological and Functional Polycentricity
From Central Places to Network Bases
The spatial extent of producer service markets
The spatial characteristics of inland transport hubs
Inland cities, maritime gateways, and international trade
International cities in the dual systems model
Christaller's Neglected Contribution to the Study of the Evolution of Central Places
Pacific Views of Urban Geography in the 1960s
The Nature of Cities” and Urban Geography in the Last Half Century
Christaller and “big data”
Urban Geography in the United States
Diffusion of Urban Models
Drittes Reich, Zweiter Weltkrieg und die deutschsprachige Nachkriegssoziologie
Railways and Population Distribution
Frequency Distributions of Central Places in Southern Germany
Principles of Areal Functional Organization in Regional Human Geography
Extraordinary African cities? Zipf’s law and the emerging African system of cities☆
Urban systems in medium-sized cities
Ecological Metaphors as Scientific Boundary Work
Efficiency Through Proximity
Strukturen Sehen. Über die Karriere eines Hexagons in der quantitativen Revolution
Revolution ohne Kiel und ohne Revolution – Die quantitativ-theoretische Geographie in Erlangen
Variable relationships in central place and retail potential models
Central flow theory
Lost in plain sight
The Regional Economy, Spatial Structure and Regional Urban Systems
Locational Characteristics of Dry Ports in Developing Economies
Representation and Idealization
Industrial agglomeration, public services and city size
City seeds
Country Roads
Finding the Global City
External Urban Relational Process
Do Airports Boost Economic Development by Attracting Talent? An Empirical Investigation at the Subcounty Level
The Dynamic Component of Christaller's Central Place Theory and the Theme of Change in His Research
The hierarchy of central places in Tasmania
Edward Louis Ullman, 1912–1976∗
The Hierarchy of Central Functions Within the City
Walter Christaller 1
The Port of Genova
Some Generalizations Concerning Primate Cities 1
Why Political Scientists Should Study Smaller Cities
Intermittent Crafting and Multicrafting at Xochicalco
Reopke Lecture in Economic Geography
Changements de paradigme en géographie et aménagement du territoire
Lives Lived and Lives Told
New Economic Geography
A Model of Size and Economic Structure in an Urban Hierarchy
Geography and the Study of Cities
Toward a Locational Definition of State Systems of Settlement
Archaeology as Behavioral Science1
| Unique citing works | 73 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,06 |
| Citation span | 1957 - 2026 (70) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 64 |