Theories and Concepts

Central Place Theory

● Threshold- number of people to support

● Range- distance people are willing to travel for services

○ The more specialized the large the threshold and range is

● There is a node, hearth and the area around it is serviced by it

● Order of largest to smallest- megalopolis, metropolitan, city, town, village, hamlet

● Old circle model is impossible because the circles leaves areas in which people live unaccounted for

US Technopoles

a center of high-tech manufacturing and information-based quaternary

industry

Silicon Valley

• Located between San Francisco and San Jose

• Headquarters of information and technology in US

• Huge number of law firms. Why?

–Patent lawyers to protect companies from getting sued

Facebook

Also: Yahoo!, Apple, Intel, Adobe,Hewlett-Packard

MIT to Washington

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology all the way to Washington DC

• Also a what?–a megalopolis

Seattle, WA

• Technological hub for many companies, such as: Microsoft, Amazon, Expedia, Nintendo of America, T-Mobile USA

• Closer to innovation easier it is to use• Agglomerates for labor

Metroplex

• Dallas-Ft. Worth area• Formal Region• Large metropolitan area• Includes: AT&T, Texas

Instruments, Metro PCS, Verizon

Rank-Size and Primacy

Primate City

o City in a country that are more than twice as large as any other city o Dominates political, cultural, economic affairs of a country o Way larger than the 2nd largest city · Ex. Tokyo, Paris, Mexico City, London, Seoul, Athens o None in the US, Brazil, and Australia

Rank-Size Rule

● Px=P1/x ○ X= rank ○ P1= population of largest city ○ Px= population size of ranked city

● Primate city throws this off

PoP Video #24

http://www.learner.org/series/powerofplace/page24.html