The concentric zone model of urbanisation

The concentric zone model of urbanisation divides cities into different circular areas with the city
centre being zone A; the business district, zone B; district of transition, zone C; area of independent
worker home‘s, zone D; area of better residences and zone E; the commuter‘s zone (Little, n.d.).

Technically I grew up in zone D but I think the concentric zone model does not work very well for
the city I grew up in. I am from a middle class family or actually my parents are rather on the high
end of working class or low end of middle class, but my grandparents on my mother‘s side were
medical practitioners and so my mother took out early inheritance and we surely still lived as if we
were middle class, we just did not get the same amounts, resources, support as people of our circle.
While they would for example push their children with extra curricular classes my brother and me
had lower grades in subjects that we did not get support for and our parents couldn‘t help with. We
did not go on holidays like others etc. and for both my brother and me started working side jobs
quite early. So we grew up in a greener family zone, with well built buildings, some had gardens,
but for example the public transportation system is very well developed and affordable, or at least
there were a lot of reductions for us. So there was a trend for people with money to live in the
expensive and well preserved, historic city centre and for working class people to live farther out,
because the transportation system was affordable for them, the further from the centre the lower the
rents and commute time in my culture is considered to be a waste of time, so if you work or study in
zone A you prefer to live close. But another difference is that zone A is a well preserved, historic
city centre with a cleanish river running through it.
My grandparents lived together in zone D maybe even zone E, my grandfather was from a village
and his father was as well a medical practitioner, so same class, but I doubt the village had these
zones. My grandmother lived in a nice house with a garden in the city centre, zone A or at the
border to zone B but then here father lost his business and they moved far out to zone D or E but
definitely a cheap place in a shared apartment. I lived in zone A bordering zone B when I was
studying my first degree, then I lived all over the country accordingly to work projects, when I lived
in the UK I think I lived in a zone C for most of the time. Then in France I think I lived mostly in
zone B or C. And now I live in Buenos Aires in zone A. Maybe I am mistaken but it seems to me
that in none of the cities I lived, the zones are according to how the concentric zone model of
urbanization describes them. They are all more similar to the city I grew up in.

Critic of the concentric zone model of urbanization states that it mostly applies to cities in the
United States of America (Concentric Zone Model 2021). In my experience European cities and
Buenos Aires are differently built considering theses zones.

References:

N. D. (2021). Concentric Zone Model by Ernest Burgess | Burgess Model. Planning Tank. Retrieved
March 15, 2022, from https://planningtank.com/settlement-geography/concentric-zone-model-
burgess-model

Little, W. (n.d.) Introduction to sociology - 1st Canadian edition. B.C. Open Textbook project.
Retrieved March 15, 2022, from https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontosociology/front-matter/about-
the-book/