Key Models / Theories/ Concepts in Human Geography

Model / Year / Geographer / Idea
Population
Demographic Transition Model / 1929 / Warren Thompson (U.S.) / All countries will transition through 4 stages ranging from high BR and DR(Stage 1) to low BR and DR(Stage 4)
The transition is related to industrialization, urbanization, and the resulting changes in the social trends (working women, educated women, improved medical care, etc.)
Epidemiological Transition Model / 1971 / Abdel Omran (Egypt) / Change in causes of death from infectious diseases to degenerative (old age)diseases
Rectangularization of death
Essays on Population “Overpopulation” / Late 1790s and early 1800s / Thomas Malthus / Food production grows arithmetically and population growth is geometric (exponential)
Malthusian checks: war, misery, and vice
Gravity Model / Early 70’s / A. Sayer, A.G. Wilson / Mathematical model devised to explain/predict the amount of interaction between communities / regions.
(migration, telephone traffic, commodities)
Amount of interaction increases as population of communities increases (positive correlation). Amount of interaction decreases as distance increases (inverse correlation)
Laws of Migration / 1885 / Ernst Ravenstein (Britain) / Net migration amounts to a fraction of the gross migration between 2 places
The majority of migrants move a short distance.
Migrants who move longer distances tend to choose big-city destinations.
Urban residents are less migratory than inhabitants of rural areas.
Families are less likely to make international moves than young adults.
Culture
Cultural Ecology / Mid 1900’s / Carl Sauer (U.S.) / Cultural Ecology (human impact on the physical LANDSCAPE)
Usually not beneficial
Late 1800’s / Friedrich Ratzel (Germany) / Ecological relationship between physical surface of earth and human culture
Conquest Theory of Language Diffusion / Language diffuses through groups of people who move into an area and take over (invading armies, subsequent settlers)
Agricultural Theory of Language Diffusion / ?
1884 / Luca Cavalli-Sforza and Robert Ammerman
Thomas Gamkrelidze and Victor Ivanov (USSR) / Language diffusion occurs along with the diffusion of agriculture from agr. hearths
Economic
Structuralist / Dependency - World Systems/ Core-Periphery Theory / 1970s – 1980s / Immanuel Wallerstein (U.S.) / The entire world is linked – interdependent
There are rich (core) countries and poor (periphery) countries. (always will be both)
They each depend to certain extent of the other
Newer category of semi-periphery (NICs)
Liberal - Modernization Model / 1960s / Walt Rostow / All countries will eventually reach the 5 stage of economic development (traditionalist, precondition for take-off, take-off, drive to maturity, high mass consumption
Market Area Analysis - Profit Maximization Approach / 1940’s / August Losch (German) / Entrepreneurs will select a site where the difference between sales income and production costs are greatest (Greatest net profit)
Market Area Analysis – Locational Interdependence / 1929 / Harold Hotelling (U.S.) / Locate where maximum profit is possible – related to where competitors are located (ice cream stand on beach)
Least Cost Analysis – Weberian Theory / 1909 / Alfred Weber (German) / Optimal location is where costs are minimized (transportation, labour, agglomeration)
The Law of Retail Gravitation / 1931 / W.J. Reilly / Used to determine the boundary(zone of indifference) between 2 communities. People on one side of the boundary will travel to 1 community and those on the other side of the boundary will travel to the other.
The communities with more functions will have the larger sphere of influence. (people will travel farther to this community)
Related to the Gravity Model. Unlike the gravity model, population size is not the key factor, rather number of central place functions is used to represent size communities
Gravity Model / See Gravity Model under Populatiom
Political
Organic Theory / Early 1900s / Friedrich Ratzel (German) / States are like organisms, must feed themselves and grow in order to remain healthy, otherwise they die
Hitler used this theory to justify his expansion
Heartland Theory / 1919 / Halford Mackinder / The interior of Eurasia is the key to power – safer from attack/invasion
Rimland Theory / 1944 / Nicolas Spykman / The Eurasian Rim was the key to power (not necessarily all controlled by 1 state – today - EU, Russia, China, Japan)
Agriculture
Agricultural Land Use / 1826 / Johann Heinrich von Thunen (German) / Spatial arrangement of agricultural land surrounding a single market (community)
Urban
Central Place Theory / 1933 / Walter Christaller (German) / Regular arrangement of communities within a region
More hamlets than villages, more villages than towns, etc.
Less space between hamlets than between villages, less space between villages than between towns, etc.
4 Stages of Evolution of U.S. Metropolis / 1967 / John Borchert / 1) Sail-Wagon Epoch 1790 – 1830
2) Iron-Horse Epoch 1830 – 1870
3) Steel-Rail Epoch 1870 – 1920
4) Auto-Air-Amenity Epoch 1920 – 1960
5) High-Tech Epoch 1970 – present
The epoch during which the city was founded and/or developed played a significant role in the character of the city(architecture, design, etc.)
Concentric Zone Model / 1925 / Ernest Burgess / CBD plus 4 concentric zones
As distance increases from CBD, quality generally improves
As city grows invasion and succession occurs (CBD(1st zone) moves into the Zone of Transition (2nd zone) the Z of T moves into Zone of Independent Workers’ Home (3rd zone) etc.
Buffering present
Sector Model / 1939 / Homer Hoyt / Zones of similarities could extend all the way from the CBD to the outskirts within a sector or wedge, not just within a concentric ring.
Often the sectors were associated with transportation routes.
Low income lived closest to the industrial sector, rich lived closest to the education and recreational amenities, and the middle class acts as a buffer between the rich and poor.
Filtering occurred when the more affluent members of a sector tended to move farther from the CBD and are replaced by slightly lower income groups.
Buffering present
Multi-nuclei Model / 1945 / Chauncy Harris & Edward Ullman / CBD losing its dominance, secondary nuclei forming.
Growing importance of cars – suburban/peripheral nuclei
Urban Realm Model / 1990 / James Vance (Trueman Hartshorne & Peter Muller) / Describes automobile-dependent metropolitan areas. Large, self-sufficient suburban sectors – people tend to live and work within their realm. Decreasing interaction between the suburban realms and the CBD.
Latin American City Model or Ibero-American City / 1980 &
1996 / Larry Ford & Ernest Griffin
Larry Ford / Wealthy live closer to the CBD and along the commercial spine. (elite residential, middle class tracts, and zone of maturity)
Zone of peripheral squatters and wedges of disamenity (very poor) – edge of city, away from CBD (barrios/favelas/shanties))
Disamenity sectors –
Gentrification zone in Ford’s revised model
Gravity Model / See Gravity Model under Population