Urban Spatial Structure

Urban Ecology and the Chicago School

The Chicago School of urban ecology comprises a number of schematic models of urban spatial structure, all of which start with one preconception—that cities are embodying and representing the characteristics of human nature and thus must be understood as such. Humans are essentially territorial beings who struggle with others over the control of space and resources in the game of survival. In this ecological conceptualization of human competition, the spatial arrangements of urban settlements represent the different levels and opportunities of adaptation of humans and their social groups to the physical environment. In other words, the ecological urban models of the Chicago School draw heavily on establishing correlations between ecological patterns and social processes. This tradition goes back to Herbert Spencer, who was the first to use Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory to explain social processes. Spencer interpreted the processes of social organization by comparing human interactions and their resulting spatial patterns to the principles of species competition, where in personal competition for resources the individuals selected are those who are best suited for the task. This view became predominant in the early theoretical work of the so-called Chicago School of sociology, to which Robert Park, Ernest Burgess, Roderick McKenzie, Chauncy Harris, Edward Ullman, and Homer Hoyt became the most significant contributors. In their work, they documented how the city became the playground for human competition where social groups compete for jobs, opportunities, and land. The outcome of this work was schematic models of idealized urban environment that portrayed the spatial arrangement of urban structures as a process in which certain social groups, at certain points in urban development, occupy certain parts of the city. In Park's concentric zone model, for example, the city of Chicago is portrayed as an idealized flat surface with concentric rings of different functions and land uses organized around it. According to Park's theory of urban development, zones are centered around a central business district (CBD). Immediately around the CBD could be found a transitional zone that was characterized by older, smaller, less valuable and attractive houses mixed in with light industry and office space. This zone generally attracted newcomers to the city, especially immigrants, due to the fact that housing there was generally cheap, available, and temporary. Succeeding this transitional zone could be found another low-income residential area that was more stable in terms of the in- and out-migration of residents and that was established over longer periods of time, with a culturally and socially stable community. Farther outward in another ring could be found the increasingly larger dwelling units of the middle and upper classes whose members were willing and able to commute considerable distances to their places of work.

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