The social map of greater Buenos Aires as empirical evidence of urban models

Abstract

There exists an important tradition in the formulation of urban models to describe and study urban socio-economic structure. From the initial contributions of the 1920s until the 1950s these have emphasized the determination of specific spatial configurations (rings, sectors, multiple nuclei) and later integrative proposals were generated. In the case of Latin American cities these basic configurations were combined, with new specific adjustments. The present study defines the social map of Greater Buenos Aires using census variables and incorporating the spatial distribution of other located spatial entities of extreme socio-economic characteristics (new closed urbanizations and marginal settlements). The results obtained reveal the manner in which the large metropolis' interior presents a combination of modeling aspects of various periods and traditions of research, which mark its historical development and current form. © 2012 Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers.