INTERACTIONS BETWEEN SPREAD-AND-BACKWASH, POPULATION TURNAROUND AND CORRIDOR EFFECTS IN THE INTER-METROPOLITAN PERIPHERY: A CASE STUDY

Abstract

Three recurrent concepts in urban geography are examined in a single area within a portion of the inter-metropolitan periphery, primarily for the 1960-1980 period. This local-scale study attempts to replicate several findings of studies involving larger units dispersed over wider regions. In this portion of the inter-metropolitan periphery, spread-and-backwash was evident in the 1960s, followed by the population turnaround in the 1970s but only within the context of an urban corridor defined with respect to combined metropolitan and nonmetropolitan commuting areas as linked by major highways. The end of the turnaround was also corroborated in the area but there was not clear evidence of a return to an urban-linked growth pattern. This study suggests the existence of a complex rural-area pattern evolving around corridors and hierarchical sets of nonmetropolitan cities, rather than either a simple, uninterrupted march of metropolitanization across a rural landscape or the emergence of a high-tech society freed from such constraints as distance and rural/urban distinctions.