The "Factorial Ecology of Dallas County" deals with the differentiation of census tracts based on combinations of census tract variables for Dallas County. The study examines this differentiation, using five factors which are analyzed in relation to concentric zone and sector theory. All of the analyses are based upon data which are available by census tract from the 1970 national census.

<p> This study investigates variables associated with residential mobility and migration at the ecological level. The aim of the study is to test the application of factor analysis to a more specific subject than the description of the whole urban structure. </p> <p> Theoretical formulations about urban growth, urban ecology and mobility are examined, together with empirical research in these fields, to determine variables considered to be associated with changes in residence. The indicators of variables chosen for analysis are from census data and city reports, and each census tract of the chosen urban area is assigned a value for each indicator. The area selected for the study is the Hamilton Metropolitan Area, Ontario. </p> <p> The results of the analysis reveal that most of the variation in the variables is accounted for by two factors: dwelling type and household composition, and economic status. These are the same factors which have been identified in factorial ecologies of geaeral urban structure. </p> The remaining factors are more associated with mobility, and reveal that different origins of movers and migrants are associated with different characteristics and geographical distributions. The hypotheses concerning the relationships with age, population growth and distance from the city centre are supported by the analysis, and the size and direction of movement is generally as expected. However, the hypothesis of increasing economic status with increasing distance migrated is not confirmed: migrants from abroad and different provinces tend to migrate to areas or lower economic status than migrants from Ontario or from the Hamilton metropolitan fringe. </p> <p> This study recognises the limitations of a factorial ecology of residential mobility. Particular care should be exercised in the selection of variables and measures of these variables. Factorial ecology is a descriptive tool, and further analysis of apparent association between variables should be undertaken to determine their statistical significance. </p> <p> The study emphasises the contribution of factorial ecology to the description of areal associations of more specific subjects such as residential mobility, and possibly for other social phenomena. As such, it provides a means for parsimonious description of aspects of urban social geography. </p> / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

The inspiration for this paper came from a walk in Warsaw, Poland - a city that has a very unusual development pattern and owes its character largely to the last 75 years. The visible differences in development patterns occur in almost every neighbourhood and each of them is the result of a different conceptual approach, additionally shaped by the regulations and economic prosperity of the time. This has inspired to further analyse the social structures of these spaces and explore the factors that determine the appearance and characteristics of the different neighbourhoods. The aim of this study is to get acquainted with spatial differentiation and explain the internal structure of the city of Warsaw, to define what social, economic and developmental processes have led to the current spatial-social structure of the city and to determine what potential processes may occur in the space depending on the identified conditions. The research method used for this study is factor analysis, which is an inductive tool used to analyse the relationships between a variety of social, economic, demographic, and housing characteristics in the city of Warsaw. Its aim is to determine what, if and what common patterns exist in the studied subject.