Growth, politics, and the stratification of places

Abstract

This is an essay on the process of spatial differentiation of human communities. I argue that the differentiation of places implies sets of advantage sand disadvantages for persons who are tied to each place and thus affects the chances for individual up ward or down ward mobility. A common response to this fact is a continuing collective effort to influence the pattern of development among places through political action. Places with early advantages, by making full political use of their superior resources can potentially rein force their relative position with in the system of places. I hypo the size there fore that spatial differentiation tends to be transformed over time in to an increasingly rigid stratification of places. The study of the development of systems of places found its classical Formulation in human ecology. By emphasizing the stratification aspect of spatial differentiation, I am proposing are orientation to ward a more political human ecology with spatial differentiation seen not only as the population’s natural selective response to its habitat but also as a means of organizing gin equality.