NINO STAFFA groups and individuals choose their location iJ:!the city (where a choice exists) according to the value - they place on that particular location. Hoyt, for instance, writing in 1939 noted that the high status residential areas were distributed in sectoral wedges which in many cases carne dose to the centre but on one side or along a certain line of transportation rather than, as the Chicago School suggested, in the outlying high statuts « commuter belt ». Severa! studies have been carried out in Britain using « behaviourist » approaches. Robson's study of Sunderland (28) arrived at an idealized model of the ecologica! areas of the town which displays several noteworthy features. As Figure 2 (below) shows, along the banks of the River Wear (running from west to east) there is a narrow belt of industriai land. At a certain point immediately to the South of the river there is the Centrai Business District with severa! sectors of Iow, medium and high status housing reaching towards it. On the northern side of the river, however, the generai pattern conforms to the « concentric zone » model. There is a third important element which does not conform to either the « concentric zone» model nor the « sectoral » model, and that is the « public sector » housing. These two physical-social models can only be applied in any way to the « private » housing market. In America where these two models were formulated the public housing sector is negligible, whereas in Britain the « public-sector » is the second-biggest sector in the « housing market» (see Table 5 above). On the western side of Sunderland, therefore, running from North to South there is a very broad belt of Council Housing. An earlier study of Belfast by Jones (29) revealed a similar spatial pattern to that of Sunderland with a mixture of elements from the « concentric zone» and the « sectoral » models. Jones reaffirms the « behaviourist » theory that it is the sodai valuation of environment by the members of the higher strata of society which has had the biggest influence on the overall social and physical shape of the city. Unfortunatley the emphasis that the « behaviourist » placed on preference and choice in their analyses exclude consideration (28) B.T. ROBSON, The Ecological Structure of Sunderland, from « Vrban Analysis » (Cambridge University Press 1969), pp. 103-133. (29) R.J. JOHNSTON, Neighbourhood Patterns in the United Kingdom, from « Cities in Modem Britain », p. 179. 30
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