Centre

From Geography

The centre is a term in the field of geography to describe the core area of a region. This can be seen on multiple scale levels. For example, seen on a city, the city center usually is the centre of the town, leaving te suburbs to be periphery. In countriess, parts of the world, or even the entire world, such distinctions can be made. Çentres can be the most important economically cities, which are located the most centrally.

The centre is the opposite of the periphery. The periphery is usually the lesser developed area of a region.

Centrality

Thus, there is a centre and a periphery. But how can we decide about the border between this two areas? What makes places 'centre' or 'central' and why do some activities concentrate in certain places and not in other areas? When centrality is playing a role, we can use the concept of centrality made by Walter Christaller (1966). He became famous with his Central Place Theory about centrality, which states that a central place is a geographic location where services and goods are provided for a surrounding area.

References

Christaller, W. (1933). Die zentralen Orte in Süddeutschland. Translated by Baskin, C. (1966) as Central Places in Southern Germany. Prentice Hall.

Contributors

• Page created by Robert Wursten on october 10th 2012
• Page enhanced by Marleen Revenberg on october 17th 2012