Abstract:

Human ecologists have sought explicitly to identify processes of population growth and development at an organic level. For them, the community is understood as an adaptive mechanism which maximizes the efficient use of resources under the pressure of population growth. On a larger scale, competition among cities for lucrative positons in a national interdependent urban structure is viewed as the driving force behind differential urban population growth. This ecological approach regards individuals' micro-economic competition for resources, i.e., land use or employment, as the force behind the resulting spatial differentiation of place. Assuming free competition for resources, ecologists could thus assert that the resulting differentiation of space would be most effective for the population.