Chapter 20.2

concentric zone model

This model views a city as a series of concentric circular areas, expanding outward from the center of the city, with various "zones" invading adjacent zones (as new categories of people and businesses overrun the edges of nearby zones) and succeeding (then after invasion, the new inhabitants repurpose the areas they have invaded and push out the previous inhabitants)

Human ecology

a functionalist field of study that looks at on the relationship between people and their built and natural physical environments

megalopolis

a huge urban corridor encompassing multiple cities and their surrounding suburbs

refugee

an individual who has been forced to leave his or her country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster

the exurbs

communities that exist outside the ring of suburbs and are typically populated by even wealthier families who want more space and have the resources to lengthen their commute

sustainable development

development that occurs without depleting or damaging the natural environment

internally displaced person

neither a refugee nor an asylum-seeker. Displaced persons have fled their homes while remaining inside their country's borders.

Gentrification

occurs when members of the middle and upper classes enter and renovate city areas that have been historically less affluent while the poor urban underclass are forced by resulting price pressures to leave those neighborhoods for increasingly decaying portions of the city.

white flight

refers to the migration of economically secure white people from racially mixed urban areas and toward the suburbs.

suburbs

the communities surrounding cities, typically close enough for a daily commute in, but far enough away to allow for more space than city living affords

Urbanization

the study of the social, political, and economic relationships in cities, and someone specializing in urban sociology studies those relationships.

asylum-seekers

those whose claim to refugee status has not been validated

metropolis

together, the suburbs, exurbs, and metropolitan areas all combine to form this