RESIDENTIAL LOCATION AND THE PROVISION OF HUMAN SERVICES: SOME DIRECTIONS FOR GEOGRAPHIC RESEARCH∗

∗ Research support from the National Science Foundation, Grant # SOC7707081 is gratefully acknowledged. Thanks are also extended to Julian Wolpert and Michael Dear for their valuable comments.

The concentration of poor, service-dependent groups in aging central cities results both from suburbanization of the affluent and from the reliance of the service-dependent population upon place-specific human services provided by the public sector. Such concentration of services and their users in deteriorating inner-city sites may be functional for the larger society, but it has adverse impacts upon those who are service dependent. This paper argues that the implications of locational interdependence between such groups and their support services demand a paradigm for urban geography that centers upon the fundamental structure and impacts of population/service-provision linkages.

Notes

∗ Research support from the National Science Foundation, Grant # SOC7707081 is gratefully acknowledged. Thanks are also extended to Julian Wolpert and Michael Dear for their valuable comments.