pre-industrial city

A model of the pre-capitalist city, as advanced by G. Sjöberg (1960). The city centre is occupied by a small elite, who, because of their association with political and religious power, control the political, religious, administrative, and social functions of the city, and who are catered for by their domestics. The lower classes, including merchants, occupy the concentric zone surrounding the centre, and the outcasts are consigned to the outer edges of the city. The concept of the exclusive social core has been questioned by J. Vance, who notes the many craft quarters at the heart of the pre-industrial city, each characterized by a vertical structuring of space. Many geographers reject attempts to find cross-cultural similarities in urban social geography.