Walter Christaller's Central Places and Peripheral Areas: The Central Place Theory in Retrospect†

Abstract

I Walter Christaller's opus on Central Places in Southern Germany -Die Zentralen Orte in Suddeutschland -ranks among the most original and most important publications that have come out on economic relationships in space during this century. In this book, a structure of the landscape was derived for the first time, within a model of the spatial distribution of towns and cities of various sizes on a homogeneous plain. The great appreciation that this book has met with is to be seen above all in the fact that it has initiated further research on a large scale and thus has become the origin of a whole new branch of research: central place theory has become the foundation of the empirical investigations on the optimal spatial structure of settlements and production sites. In the meantime, this foundation has become almost invisible and to some extent even obsolete through all that has been built on it since it was laid by Christaller i n 1933. It testifies to the greatness of this work that it was capable of these extensions and of so many further developments and that it actually has been extended with so much energy and so much success.A s sometimes happens to great scientific contributions, Walter Christaller's theory of central places was in the beginning only little recognized, strongly criticized and not fully understood by many. But this should not really be surprising: Christaller's theory had its place too far beyond the boundaries of the "landscape" which was familiar a t that time and in which investigations were made.Like other great contributions in science, the theory is comparatively simple and focuses only on a few important aspects of the problem (neglecting very many things -almost everything that had been at the center of interest both in economic location theories and in geography up to that time). But with the aid of the simple theoretical building blocks selected, it succeeds in analyzing and explaining an essential feature: a functionally hierarchic system of central places on a cornpletely homogeneous plain. Up to Christaller's time, spatial structures had only been derived on the basis of spatial irregularities, differences in climates, the location of natural traffic routes, and all kinds of non-economic factors and historical facts. By contrast, in Christaller's theory all these factors are neglected, and a spatial structure is determined on the basis of purely economic factors that lead to a spati a1 differentiation.

Crossborder cooperation in transboundary conservation-development initiatives in southern Africa: The role of borders of the mind

“…The border peripheral areas contain a lot of prospects and opportunities for tourism development (Anderson & O'Dowd, 1999;Christaller, 1963;Timothy, 2002;Von Boventer, 1969) which have in turn, made it possible to develop transborder conservationdevelopment initiatives. With reference to Europe, for example, it was observed that, "tourism is drawn to the periphery of settlement districts as it searches for the position on the highest mountain, in the loneliest woods, along the remotest beaches (Christaller, 1963:95).…”

Assessing Relationships between Land Use Changes and the Development of a Road Network in the Hodonín Region (Czech Republic)

“…The method presented here of using hexagonal grids has been used in geographic studies since the 1930s, first used in Germany in Christaller's Central Place Theory (von Boventer 1969). For studying land use changes in the Czech Republic they were already used in the 1980s in a case study from South Moravia (kolejka 1987).…”

The Impact of Central-Place Theory on Wal-Mart

“…As von Boventer (1969) put it, ''Christaller's model has been successful in explaining what it sets out to do, that is, the derivation of a hierarchy of central places with definite numerical relations between numbers of cities of various sizes'' (p. 123). His theory centered on the urban areas and the population of these areas.…”