Sean-Shong Hwang

Toward an Integrated Ecological-Sociological Theory of Suburbanization

The faster rate of population growth in suburbs than central cities that commenced at the turn of the century had transformed the United States into a suburban nation by 1970 (Berry and Kasarda 1977). Despite the nonmetropolitan population turnaround (Fuguitt 1985; Johnson and Beale 1994) and scattered incidences of gentrification in the 1970s, the secular trend toward suburban concentration continued during the 1980s (Forstall 1988). Moreover, population suburbanization is not unique to the United States. It has become a worldwide phenomenon occurring in most advanced industrial countries, including Eastern Europe (Wardwell 1980; Vining 1982; Friedrichs 1988; Hall 1988). The significance of suburbanization is apparent. Despite a growing number of empirical analyses, however, sociologists have yet to develop a general theory of suburbanization.