In this paper, you will write about a community about which you have intimate knowledge, ideally, your neighborhood or the community in which you grew up. You will use your local knowledge to interrogate one of the classic spatial location models discussed in the first half of the class.These highly abstract and analytical models include von Thünen's agricultural land use theory and its modification by Peet, related urban land use models (e.g., Burgess and Park, Hoyt, Harvey, Brigham), Christaller's central place theory and its modifications (Lösch, Isard, Reilly), Weber's industrial location model and its relatives (the Varignon frame, isoline solutions, margins of profitability). In each case, you are provided with the simplifying assumptions used to construct the analysis and some attempts at synthesizing "grubby reality" factors back into the models.
You are to select one of the major categories of classic spatial location theory (land use, central places, or industrial) and then write a report in which you relate the model to your community. Which of the simplifying assumptions characterize your community and which do not? What are the general predictions of the model? How does your community conform to them and how does it not? Why does your community conform or not conform to the expectations of the model (the simplifying assumptions are a good place to start looking for explanations, as are current economic conditions that may not have existed at the time the model was first formulated).
Be careful that the scale of your community matches the scale of expectations in the model. So, for example, you wouldn't want to apply the whole concentric urban land use model of Burgess and Park to, say, Lakewood and then criticize the model because you don't find skyscrapers in the central business district, a factory district encircling it, and a progression of poor to wealthy residential districts beyond that. You would need to situate Lakewood or wherever as a community within the large metropolitan area that is Southern California.
What you are trying to do is convince me you understand the essence of the model you picked by reflecting on its expectations in the context of a place you know very well. You are testing theory against your local knowledge, your own "folk wisdom," acquired by a long time spent in a locale. There is no real right or wrong answer: What the paper does is get you to master one of the models, interrogate it critically against your own experience, display and validate your local knowledge, and show thoughtfulness and sophistication.
Writing mechanics count! They account for 30 percent of the points possible on this paper, so pay attention to organization; spelling; grammar; the construction of correct, complete, and varied sentences; proper punctuation and capitalization; and avoiding sexist usage. You can find more explicit standards for writing mechanics here.
Late papers will lose 10 percent of the possible points for every campus working day they're late unless you have made prior arrangements with me (as for religious obligations, for example). I may reduce the point loss in the event of a very serious emergency that precluded prior notification, depending on the severity of the situation.