Spatial structure of the city: From the social-ecology concept to the concept of sustainable development

Abstract

This article contributes, in the form of theoretical discussion, to the review of relevant methods for determination of cities spatial structure through the retrospective of continuity/discontinuity of understanding their spatial structure from the school of classical sociology to the sustainable development paradigm. Particularly, authors underline significance and analyze main theories and their models (social-ecology, economics, system science and geography) in the researching of spatial structure of the cities. They conclude that urban settlements spatial structure is resultant of complex dynamically-developing processes between settlements networks and systems on the one, and also between their internal components, on the other side. In their essence, cities are not statical category, but complex and dynamical system whose structure reflects the relations between economic social and cultural organization of life, adapted to the geographic environment.

U radu su, u formi teorijske rasprave, dati prikazi relevantnih postupaka za determinisanje prostorne strukture gradova kroz retrospekt kontinuiteta diskontinuiteta shvatanja njihove prostorne strukture, od paradigme klasične socijalne ekologije, do paradigme održivog razvoja. Posebno su naglašene i analizirane socio-ekološke, ekonomske, sistemske i geografske teorije u istraživanju prostornih struktura gradova i na njima zasnovani modeli. Došlo se do zaključka da je prostorna struktura urbanih naselja rezultanta delovanja složenih dinamično-razvojnih i integracijskih procesa koji se odvijaju u mrežama i sistemima naselja na jednoj strani, te između njihovih unutrašnjih komponenata na drugoj. Svojom biti, grad nije statična tvorevina već je složen i dinamičan sistem u čijoj se strukturi odražava oblik organizacije ekonomskog, socijalnog i kulturnog života, adaptiran uslovima geografske sredine u kojoj egzistira.