The Von Thuenen Paradigm, the Industrial‐Urban Hypothesis, and the Spatial Structure of Agriculture

Abstract

Abstract The industrial‐urban hypothesis has stimulated considerable empirical research on the spatial structure of agriculture. The alternative paradigm of von Thuenen has had almost no such impact on agricultural research, but has been the mainstay of urban economic analysis. The two models are compared as scientific theories of agricultural land use in an attempt to identify their similarities and contradictions. After reinterpreting several industrial‐urban studies from a von Thuenen viewpoint, an empirical discrimination between the two models is attempted with Brazilian data. A synthesis of the two paradigms provides a better explanation of agricultural structure than either alone.