The Concentric ring model also known as the Burgess model is one of the earliest theoretical models to explain urban social structures. It was created by sociologist Ernest Burgess in 1925.
Zone I, the CBD, lies at the centre of the city. Zone II is in transition. It is the crowded, multi-occupied zone of the city first invaded by migrants. Within this Zone are the ghetto areas (these are not necessarily slums). In Zone III are the working men's houses, the area of second generation immigrants, one step up from Zone II. Zones IV and V are residential; Zone IV for the better-off and Zone V for the commuters. All these zones are held to have evolved separately and without planning. They result from the competition of different socio-economic groups for land. This competition results in variations in the cost of land and, therefore, causes segregation within a city. The model assumes uniformly flat, and available, land, and ignores the importance of transport routes, but relies on the theory that city growth results from distinct waves of in-migrants, that is to invasion and succession. In this last respect it is therefore more applicable to cities in the USA than to European cities. See also sector theory, multiple nuclei model,Mann's model.
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Concentric zone mode
l Commuter zone
Residential zone
Working class zone
Zone of transition
Factory zone
CBD
The Model
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Concentric zone theory
Based on human ecology theories done by Burgess and applied on Chicago, it was the first to give the explanation of distribution of social groups within urban areas. This concentric ring model depicts urban land use in concentric rings: the Central Business District (or CBD) was in the middle of the model, and the city expanded in rings with different land uses. It is effectively an urban version of Von Thunen's regional land use model developed a century earlier. It contrasts with Homer Hoyt's