Central Place Theory and Southern Urbanization

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that the application of central place theory to the study of urbanization of the American South reveals significant information about the dynamic process of building an urban system in this highly agricultural region. It can be shown that the city system in the cotton-growing states at the turn of the century conformed to and can be analyzed in the context of the central place model. Indeed, the only clear way to explain the peculiarities in the rate and form of southern urbanization is to view the historical process as the evolution of a hierarchy of central places, the primary functions of which were to provide central services of the cotton-growing industry. Specifically, this paper (1) reports on the evidence of the development of a central place system in the South from 1880 to 1930, (2) argues that much of the southern urbanization experience is explainable through the application of the central place model, and (3) suggests inferentially that central place theoy can be a useful tool in the study of urban development in the region