Concentric Zone Theory

During the 1920's Robert E. Park and Ernest W. Burgess developed a unique program at the University of Chicago. They mainly based it around the city of Chicago at the time but they elaborated on the theory of cities and said that the most important force of a city was competition. Land was a big issue in their elaboration and how people competed for land which forced different groups and types of people into one section, such as the poor, and the wealthy into another area. This forced more areas to pay higher rents which forced businesses to move away from the center of the cities. Park and Burgess called this a succession. The model that they call the Concentric Zone Thoery said that cities would form five different concentric rings dealing with the central business district, transitional zone, working class, and residential zone, and commuters zone. The Circle starts with the cities center and moves outward away from the city. If you click on this link you will be able to see an image of the Concentric Zone Theory and will be able to understand it better. http://www.rri.wvu.edu/WebBook/Briassoulis/figure3.2c.jpg