Socioeconomic status and the concentric zonal structure of Canadian cities

Socioeconomic status and the concentric zonal structure of Canadian cities

P E T E R c . P I N E O McMaster University‘

La plupart des rechercheurs qui Ctudient la structure des rigions metropolitaines canadiennes ont utilisC les donnCes du recensement du Canada qui ont CtC groupCes en secteurs de recensement. Dans cette recherche un type alternatif de donnies est utilise, qui vient d’un sondage qui donne les renseignements sur les repondants individuels. Les comparaisons sont faites des caracteristiques des rkpondants qui demeurent au centre- ville, les plus vieux faubourgs et les nouveaux faubourgs. Comme dans la recherche prkcidente, on trouve que le statut socio-iconomique augmente avec la distance du zone central de la ville. Les effets sont moins forts que ceux que l’on trouve dans les diffirents stages de la vie et plus forts que ceux de l’ethnie ou du lieu de naissance. Le niveau de revehu des ripondants dCmontre un rapport plus marquC que d’autres mesures de statut socio-iconomique, de profession et d‘Cducation. Tous les liens, pourtant, sont trks modestes en comparaison avec ceux que l’on trouve en analysant les donnies des secteurs de recensement.

Most researchers studying the structure of Canadian metropolitan areas have used data from the Census of Canada which has been grouped into Census tracts. In this research an alternative type of data is used from a large national survey which provides information on individual respondents. Comparisons are made of the characteristics of respondents living in the central city, the older suburbs and the new suburbs. As in earlier research, socioeconomic status is found to increase with distance from the city core. The pattern is less strong than that found for life cycle stage, and stronger than that for ethnicity or birthplace. The income level of the respondents shows a stronger relationship than the other measures of socioeconomic status, occupation and education. All the retionships, however, are found to be extremely modest, in contrast to those found in analysis of the census tract data.

* This research was undertaken during an SSHRC leave fellowship. The design of the survey was by Tom Atkinson and Norm Shulman, with the author as consultant. Acknowledgement is made of their contribution, and the York University I .B .R .

staff. Further help in preparing this particular analysis was given by Norm Shulman to whom special thanks are given. This manuscript was received in February, 1986 and accepted in July, 1987.

Rev. canad. SOC. & Anth. f Canad. Rev. SOC. & Anth. z5(3) 1988

422 P E T E R c . P I N E O

Few other examples of middle range theorizing in sociology can have had the durability of Ernest W. Burgess' description of the patterning into concentric zones in American cities. Initially published in 1925, the work can be found cited in major journals as recently as 1986 (Stearns and Logan, for example). The notion of residential structures being distributed in gradients of ascending socioeconomic status, with concomitant shifts in ethnic composition, has survived repeated tests with ever improving data within North America and has been found to have some, but not complete, relevance to cities elsewhere in the world. Alternative patterns have been suggested which in retrospect seem more like supplements to the Burgess pattern rather than real contradictions (Hoyt, 1939; Harris and Ullman, 1945; Firey, 1945). The continued relevance of the theory is even more remarkable since it could be falsified not only because of initial error but also because true social change might occur which would render it no longer a valid description. It is on this point that much recent research has shown concern, as the shift of urban occupational sites from the core to the outer zones of the city could be expected to alter the patterning of residential structures.

Within Canada, the most extensive research on zonal structuring has been conducted by Balakrishnan and Jarvis using data from the 1961 and 1971 Censuses of Canada (1976, '979). Earlier work on the 1961 Census can be found in Guest (1969). Single cities have also been intensively studied from Census data, such as Winnipeg (Nicholson and Yeates, 1969; Hunter and Latif, 1973) and Toronto (Murdie, 1969). Attention is paid to the patterning into concentric circles as well as to alternative and supplementary formulations. For example, Balakrishnan and Jarvis have organized the data into sectors based on transportation routes as well as into zones. Other studies use multivariate procedures to detect patterns. Attention has also been paid to the role of life cycle stage (variously called Level of Urbanization or Family Status), a matter raised initially by Shevky and Bell (1955) and not anticipated in Burgess' work. A series of papers by Gera and Kuhn have addressed the role played by the journey to work in forming residential patterns (for example, 1981). Canadian sociologists have also shown a special interest in ethnic group residential patterns (Darroch and Marston, 1971; Richmond, 1972; Driedger and Church, 1974; Balakrishnan, 1976; 1982), although with its emphasis upon ethnic segregation, this research has only indirect bearing upon the problem of zonal structuring.

In the main these studies have been based on data from the various Censuses of Canada, and have enjoyed the special advantages and certain limitations of that data source. This paper reconsiders the question of the patterning within Canadian cities taking advantage of the availability of data of a different sort - a large ( N = 11061) sample survey of 22 of Canada's 23 Census metropolitan areas, collected by the former Federal Ministry of State for Urban Affairs. Sample survey data suffer limitations as, in particular, the complete geographical area of the city is not covered and so the formation of transportation sectors or the detailed analysis of residential ethnic groups cannot be pursued. On the other hand, a survey can contain a broader range of questions than are ever contained in a Census, and perhaps most importantly are available to the analyst as individual records, rather than aggregated into Census Tracts. The well known tendency for data organized into Census Tracts to lead to distorted or exaggerated estimates of individual level

423 S E S A N D C O N C E N T R I C Z O N E S O F C A N A D I A N C I T I E S

relationships' suggests that relying solely upon this type of data could lead to inaccurate understanding of urban patterns. Thus the estimates ranging around 20 per cent of the variation in socioeconomic status being explained by urban zones provided by Balakrishnan and Jarvis (1979: 224) refer of course to variation in status between Census Tracts and not at the individual level. The various authors are fully aware of these problems and conduct their analyses accordingly; those studying ethnic segregation seem particularly careful in this regard. The advantage of the survey data is that they enable one to identify distortions and to measure the magnitude of any exaggeration that does occur. As well the survey data permit net estimates, holding the other two constant, for each of the components of socioeconomic status - education, occupation and income. Estimates of this type are difficult to make from aggregated Census Tract data because the covariation between variables within the Tracts is not ordinarily given.

THE N A T U R E OF T H E D A T A

The survey data were collected between October, 1978 and January, 1979, by the Survey Research Centre of York University's Institute for Behavioural Research (I.B.R.). Included in the sample were 22 of Canada's then 23 Census metropolitan areas, with Oshawa being excluded. Somewhat less than the full metropolitan area was included in the sampling area. As shown in the I . B . R . documentation (1982), for the seven largest cities virtually the whole population was included. For the smaller cities, part of the outer fringe was often omitted, especially so for St. Catharines and Kitchener, where the sprawl associated with the double nucleus of the areas (i.e. St. Catharines-Niagara and Kitchener-Waterloo) would have led to an amorphous set of data had the whole area been sampled. The survey was conducted for governmental purposes and the curtailment of the area covered was most frequently a reaction to the existence of city boundaries. A target of 600 cases was established for the larger cities and of 450 for the smaller ones. In the analysis which follows, cases are deleted if no answer was given on education, occupation or income, and Charlottetown is omitted. This leaves a case base of 9176 (unweighted = 8668) of the original 11061 cases.

Within each metropolitan area the sampling frame was further divided into either three or four zones, roughly approximating concentric circles around the central business district. (Zones were not created for Charlottetown, since it is not a metropolitan area, and thus its exclusion from the analysis was unavoidable.) For the smaller cities, three zones were created. The first, called the Inner City, consisted of those areas built up during the end of the 1800s. Zone 2, called the Mature Suburbs, was so composed for each city that it contained residences of which at least 50 per cent were built prior to 1946. Zone 3, the New Suburbs, is composed of areas with residential construction mainly after 1946, extending approximately to the city limits. For the seven largest cities a fourth zone was established beyond this point to capture the newest housing and also the extreme urban fringe. Zone 4 is collapsed with 3 in the analysis which follows to maintain comparability between the cities. The resulting zones are not perfect concentric circles since they follow the pulses in housing construction.' The basis of the distinction between zones, based particularly on housing starts before and after


World War 11, has recently been repotted to have been of use in understanding residential patterns in a major U.S. city (Choldin and Hanson, 1982). The sampling target for each zone was 150 households.

The zones created in this manner emphasize distinctions within the older city, a possibly useful corrective to much research which has emphasized the distinction between the city proper and the balance of the metropolitan area (see, for example, Guest, 1969, or Goldberg and Mercer, 1986). Viewed from the point of population size, the Inner City zone is much the smallest and Zone 3 ordinarily contains the majority of the households. In the sampling frame for this study, that is before stratification, 7 per cent of the households were in Zone I, 26.7 in Zone 2 and the balance in Zones 3 and 4.

With 150 cases expected for each zone and equivalent numbers expected from cities of greatly varying size, the sample is highly stratified and weighting procedures are continually required. Details on these procedures are given in the I . B . R . documentation. The analysis which follows uses the weighting system which represents each city according to its size (called NATTHWTA in the I . B . R . material). This system emphasizes the patterns found in the larger cities, but it has the advantage of leaving the variance in socioeconomic status as it would be found in other research, such as studies of status attainment. Thus the analysis which follows can more realistically assess the extent to which city structure may be reinforcing the status system in today’s Canada.3

In each household one adult (aged 20 or older) was picked to be interviewed using random procedures. The interviews were conducted by trained staff in the respondent’s home. Up to four call-backs were made producing an overall completion rate of 64 per cent. This rate varied considerably from zone to zone and from city to city, with a high of 85 per cent in Chicoutimi and a low of 48 per cent in Montreal. Details on the sampling, formation of zones, fieldwork and weighting systems are given in the I . B . R . documentation (198~)~ in a bulletin from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (1979) and a report to the Ministry by the I.B.R. staff (Atkinson, 1979).

B A S I C M E A S U R E M E N T S

Occupational status was coded into the four l g i t s of the Canadian Classification and Dictionary of Occupations (Statistics Canada, 1971) and then converted to the Pineo Porter McRoberts coding system (1977) with the categories reversed to produce a positive measure of occupational status. Education and income were asked in a closed-ended format and converted into codes approximating years of schooling and dollars of annual income, calendar 1977.4 The education measure referred to the respondent, the income and occupation measures to the household head regardless of who was being interviewed.

Through combining information on marital status and family and household composition, an eight level classification according to life cycle stage was developed, as described below. The third element ordinarily included in studies of city structure, ethnicity, was measured using the 1971 Census question format: To what ethnic or cultural group did you or your ancestor (on the male side) belong on coming to this continent? It was coded into 21 categories. Questions on country of birth were also asked.


The job location of the household head was solicited by having the interviewers give the respondent a map of the metropolitan area with the zonal structure developed for the study indicated on it. A further distinction within the Inner City was included so that the Central Business District and the balance of the Inner City were separated. For the smaller cities the fringe area of Zone 4, while not included in the study area, was indicated as a possible job location. Respondents were asked to report in which zone the household head worked.

CITY DIFFERENCES I N ZONAL STRUCTURE

The use of a common definition of zones across all cities has the advantage of clarity and uniformity. But since the cities are different, the application of the definition produces varying results. Thus for cities which have had slow growth since World War 11, such as Winnipeg or Windsor, the central city forms a relatively large part of the whole. For cities which have had fast growth since the war, such as Quebec City or Ottawa, the outer suburban zones are comparatively large. More than just rates of growth must also be at stake, however. Victoria and Vancouver have relatively small outer zones although they are not known for particularly slow growth. In those cases it is possible that the moderate climate prolongs the life of the older housing, or perhaps topography inhibits suburban sprawl.5 For other cities, such as Sudbury, the nature of the industrial base is an apparent influence, and policy and planning may also be of importance.

The effects of the differences between cities are handled in the analysis which follows by constructing a set of 21 dummy variables (with Toronto the omitted category) representing the cities and using them as a set of control variables. Regressing these dummy variables upon zone gives a measure of how extensively the cities differ in zonal structure - a multiple R of .i33. No significance test is required for this statistic because the zones were a sampling strata in the study and the various weighting systems used faithfully reconstitute the Census parameters. Thus the .133 is the same as would be computed from the 1976 Census with the exception of some rounding error and other technical matters. The variable is also somewhat complex from a conceptual viewpoint. Controls for city to some extent merely correct for the design of the study and cannot be considered as contributing any true explanation of variation in zones. On the other hand, since the differences between the cities are real, it can be argued that controlling for them does identify a real source of variation which could eventually be linked to factors such as differing growth rates.

URBAN ZONES A N D SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS

Both intellectual and practical considerations lead to an interest in the extent to which the zones within a city are differentiated by social status. Identifying the full range of social consequences of socioeconomic status, of which this is one possibility, is a core problem in the study of social stratification. Any representa- tion of the status system in the layout and physical structures of the city could be of particular importance since such physical manifestations will persist, reinforcing or prolonging distinctions which might otherwise erode. The possibility that status based neighbourhoods may become 'institutionally complete,' to use the term

426 P E T E R c. P I N E O

coined by Breton in the study of ethnicity (1964), is of both theoretical and practical importance. As schools may develop, for example, which are homoge- neous in social status, the mobility chances of the students may be influenced. Such distinctiveness would ordinarily be likely only in smaller areas of the city, but it could become of great significance if the area involved is large, such as the whole of suburbia, because larger units can develop political effectiveness which could represent status based interests.

A first test of the extent to which socioeconomic status increases with zone can be made by computing correlations between the classic indicators of social status - education, occupation, and income - and zonal location. The relationships are all in the expected direction as all the correlations are positive. But the magnitude of the associations is extremely modest. The relationship of education to zonal location is not statistically significant ( r = .006) and that for occupation is barely so ( r = .023). Only for income is there a relationship of any real magnitude ( r = .112). The relationship is stronger when income is logged ( r = .i54), the form that is used in the balance of this analysis. The reasons for the weak relationships are shown clearly in the means (and standard deviations) given in Table I below. Only for income is the expected gradient across the zones to be found. The means for education and occupation are at their lowest in the second zone rather than the first. Gentrification is not likely the main reason for the higher status in Zone I since income is not involved. Rather job location and life cycle stage, as noted below, appear to be the more important factors. Finally, the standard deviations in the table repeat the same message: variation within the zones is virtually as great as that for the totals, and even on occasion somewhat higher.

Table II repeats the results shown in Table I in a multiple regression. The combined effect of the three status indicators produces a multiple R of .i59, scarcely more than that for logged income alone. Occupation becomes statistically non-significant and while education shows a significant b, the sign on the

TABLE I MEASURES OF SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS BY ZONE: MEANS (STANDARD DEVIATIONS) FOR ZONE

Education

Total I 2 3-4

11.84 (3.53)

Occupation 8.10 (4.25)

Income 15845 (1 275 7)

Logged income 4.08 637)

N (weighted) 9176

12.20 (3.82)

8.08 (4.87)

12676 (12536)

3.93 (.42)

638

11.61 (3.86)

7.87 (4.35)

14205 (1 2446)

4.02 637)

2453

11.90 (3.35)

8.19 (4.19)

16839 (12783)

4.11 635)

6085

(Unweighted N= 8668)


TABLE I1 SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS BY URBAN ZONE

~~

Logged Multiple R Variables used Education Occupation Income (R Square)

~~~ ~

SES, all cases -.008 -.ooo ,281 .159 (.002) t.002) t.018) (.025)

SES, heads only -.007 .ooo .245 .136 (.003) (.002) (.025) t.019)

SES, City -.006 -.001 .282 ,207 (.002) (.002) (.018) (.043)

N as in Table I. Standard errors in parentheses

coefficient is negative. The second row of the table is designed to compensate for an awkwardness in the survey brought about because education was asked of the respondent while the occupation and income were of the household head. With the regression recomputed for heads only (weighted N = 5304) this difficulty is removed. The various coefficients are essentially unchanged. Introducing the set of dummy variables for the cities, as shown in the third line of the table, also fails to alter the regression results although the multiple R is, of course, increased through the addition of another variable.

The tendency for income to substantially outperform the other measures of socioeconomic status is noteworthy since it is ordinarily expected in sociology that the three will perform similarly. Perhaps this expectation should be abandoned. The stronger performance of income may be the pattern to be expected when dealing with any expensive consumer good such as housing. In any case it means that the subtle value differences to be found among individuals of similar education, or the potential solidarity within economic class that can be found among those sharing a similar occupational status are not the effective factors in the development of what linkage there is between social status and urban zone within Canada at this time. Rather the results suggest that the typical inner city resident is somewhat status inconsistent, being below average in income and above average in education. The tendency is minute but this is again an example of interrelationships between variables which would be obscured in Tract data.

Inspection of the relationships for each city (data not given) shows that the general observation is relevant to all. The relationships are never strong. And in most instances income is considerably stronger than the others. There is some indication that the relationships within cities may be marginally stronger than the national summary statistics given above, but the difference is slight.

URBAN ZONES A N D LIFE CYCLE STAGE

Balakrishnan and Jarvis report from their analysis of Census Tract data that Canadian cities show a stronger zonal formation in terms of the life cycle stage of the household than the socioeconomic level (see, for example, 1979: 224). This same pattern is recurrently reported by those working in the social area analysis

428 PETER C . P l N E O

tradition (see Murdie, 1969: 167, or Rees, 1979: 386). It is anticipated, therefore, that the survey data will also show stronger zonal patterns in family status than in socioeconomic status, although again the survey estimates should be much lower than those coming from Tract books.

Using measures of marital status and of household and family composition yielded a typology of life cycle stage as follows:

I/ Single, at home. Households in which the respondent was 20 or older but reported a parent as household head. 2 / Single, away from home. Respondent has never married and reports him or herself as household head. 3/ Married, childless. Respondent is married and is either head or spouse of head. This category would include the permanently childless but is mainly composed of those who have not yet had children. 4/ Married, with children. Respondent is married, is head or spouse, and reports children under 20 in the household. 5/ Married, no children at home under 20. Respondent is married and is a head or spouse and has had children. Any children in the household are over 19 years of age. 6 / Widowed. Whether with children at home or not. 7/ Separated or divorced. Current marital status is separated or divorced, whether with children or not. 8/ Other. A residual category including three generation households and cases in which the respondent is not related to the household head.

The distribution of cases is shown in Table III. The modal category is ‘married with children’ followed by ’married, children away or over 20’. Some of the other categories are quite small and serve more to purify the larger categories rather than as important groupings in themselves.

The relationship of life cycle stage tozonal location is considerably stronger than that of socioeconomic status, as shown by the multiple R of .286, but again this is less than would be expected on the basis of the Tract books. The coefficients representing the effects of each life cycle stage are all highly significant statistically. These coefficients may be interpreted as measures of decentralization. As noted, Zones 4 and 3 are collapsed to make the cities equivalent, and the code ranges from I to 3. Were the respondents spread evenly across the zones in each city, the mean would be 2.00; since the study design produced a skewed distribution, the actual mean among the cases being analysed is 2.59.

The coefficients in the table may be compared to that for the omitted category. In this case the ’singles, away from home‘ scored 2.21 on this measure. All the other groups show positive departures from this, since the singles, away from home, were, as expected, the most centralized group. Those in the child raising years are the most decentralized (2.21 + .53 = 2.74). They are followed by those whose children are now all over 19. Singles, at home, are essentially the same category as the married with children over 19, differing only in who was chosen to be interviewed, and they are essentially identical in degree of decentralization. The greater degree of centralization, compared to those in the active child rearing years,


TABLE 111 LIFE CYCLE STAGE BY ZONE

Life Cycle Life Cycle, N Stage SES, GYfy

Life Cycle Stage b s. e. b s. e.

Single: At home 334 .49 (.04) .4 7 (-04) Away from home 1126 omitted category omitted category

Married: Childless 1338 .37 (.02) .35 (.02) With children 2983 .53 LO21 .SO (.02) No child under 20 1747 -48 (.02) .41 LO21 Widowed 563 .19 ~ 0 3 ) .23 (.03)

Separated, divorced 833 .21 ~ 0 3 ) .27 Other 25 3 .33 (.04) .33 (-04)

Socioeconomic status Education .001 t.002) Occupation -.ooo (.002) Logged income .I41 (.019)

Multiple R (R Square) .286 (.082) .325 (.lo51

Total N as in Table I

of those past this period and the widowed is likely brought about not so much because they have moved but because the city has grown out beyond them. Among the childless, on the other hand, their relative centralization is probably because in the average case the move they will make after the birth of any children has not yet occurred. Tight housing conditions at the time of the study may have been arresting such moves as well.

In the final data columns of Table 111, the results are given after controls for city and for socioeconomic status. These controls have little effect upon the coefficients for the life cycle stages. On the other hand, the relationship of socioeconomic status to zonal location is changed, becoming even more modest. The magnitude of the effect of income is reduced (compare to Table 11) although it remains highly significant statistically. This means that some of the apparent effect of income comes indirectly as those in the middle year life cycle stages, who tend to be decentralized, are also in the peak years of income. The other difference is that the negative coefficient for education disappears at this point. The slight hint of status inconsistency noted earlier is apparently a life cycle phenomenon as the higher income, middle-aged suburban residents have less education than the younger cohorts in the central city.

Inspection of the equivalent tabulations for each city separately (data not given) shows that the pattern is much the same within each. While there is fluctuation, the strength of the association remains about the same within cities as in the pooled result.


BIRTHPLACE, E T H N I C I T Y A N D Z O N A L L O C A T I O N

Birthplace and ethnicity can influence city structure in two quite different ways, both discussed in Burgess' original paper. For birthplace, the expectation is that the foreign born, because of economic disadvantage, would locate principally in the lower rent areas of the central city, the traditional 'ports of entry'. Such a pattern would predict a relationship between birthplace and zonal location, but one which would most probably disappear with controls for socioeconomic status. This expectation would require some qualification when applied to contemporary Canada. The image of the immigrant as penniless is known to be an inaccurate description of recent immigrant streams (see Porter, 1965, for example). Also some time has passed since Canada's most recent large wave of immigrants and the foreign born will now be middle-aged, on average, and the effects of life cycle stage may lead to a relative decentralization.

This complex of factors leads to no single expectation. Sufficient cases exist to measure the relationship as 27.8 per cent of the respondents reported birthplaces outside Canada (weighted N = 2553). Despite the many possibilities the relationship is minute and non-significant statistically ( b = --.021, s.e. = .or4), with the negative sign representing greater centralization among the foreign born. Successive introduction of controls for SES, for life cycle stage and city cause fluctuation in the value but it remains negative and at no time becomes statistically significant. These results lead to the conclusion that Canada's major wave of postwar immigrants achieved a complete dispersion across the zones of the cities within a single generation, a phenomenon which would seem highly remarkable to researchers of Burgess' day.

The other manner in which ethnicity can influence city structure involves the issue of the formation of ethnic neighbourhoods or ghettoes which persist beyond the immigrant generation. These were discussed by Burgess as a special case of what were called 'natural areas.' Discrimination by the host population, or preferences within the ethnic group for specially valued sites or for simple cohesion, can produce groupings according to ethnicity within the city. Discrimi- nation against the large black population within the United States has given this dimension a particular importance among u. s. researchers. The Canadian situation is not equivalent; here groups suffering discrimination and those following very distinctive cultural preferences tend to be small. It is, therefore, unlikely that any would turn out to dominate a complete zone within any city. This leads to expectations concerning the relationship between zonal location and ethnicity much like the conclusions reported by Balakrishnan and Jarvis in their analysis of Canadian tract data :

Spatial differentiation in ethnic status does not follow any uniform pattern over all the metropolitan areas . . . Mean ethnic diversity decreases with distance in half the metropolitan areas including mainly the smaller areas and Toronto . . . The lack of uniformity among the cities clearly indicates the randomness of ethnic distributions and the probable importance of historical factors in the settlement patterns of ethnic groups in various urban communities (1979: 226).


TABLE IV ETHNICITY BY ZONAL LOCATION: DEGREE OF CENTRALIZATION

With Life Cycle Ethnicity Only Stage, SES, City

Ethnicity N b (s. e.) b (s.e.) Charter groups 5940 omitted category omitted category

Other Europe 1333 -.lo4 (.019) -.118 (.018) Racial groups 144 -.184 (.052) -.113 (.050)

West, North Europe 869 .036 (.022) ,056 (.022)

Other, OK, NA 890 .004 LO221 .050 LO211

Socioeconomic Status Education Occupation Income

-.001 (-002) -.001 (.002)

.152 (.019)

Multiple R (R Square) .073 (.005) ,335 (.112)

N as in Table I

Diversity between the cities should result in no dominant pattern, and so associations should be small.

Ethnicity is recorded in the survey in 21 categories. Since many are small, they have been regrouped for purposes of analysis into five categories. The English, French, Irish and Scots form the Charter groups, the omitted category in analysis. Germans, Scandinavians and neighbouring nations form the ethnicities of Western and North Europe. The Eastern European and Mediterranean areas form the Other Europe group. The racial groupings are composed of the native Indians, Chinese and Japanese. Finally, the fairly large number stating they did not know their ethnicity are pooled in an Other category with the residual group and the no answers. The size of the resulting groups is shown in Table IV.

Ethnicity is more strongly related to zonal location than was birthplace, as shown by the multiple R of .073. Yet as expected this is a weaker relationship than for socioeconomic status and much weaker than for life cycle stage. The individual coefficients suggest that only the racial groupings and the Eastern and Mediterranean ethnicities are significantly more centralized than the Charter groups. The same pattern pertains, as shown in the final data columns, after the introduction of SES, life cycle stage and the city dummies as controls. With these controls the greater decentralization of the West and North Europeans and the Other groups becomes statistically significant. The final columns also show that the effects of socioeconomic status are not appreciably altered by the introduction of ethnicity as a variable. While the issue is not pursued there are hints in further tabulations which have been attempted that there is considerable complexity in the relationships involving both birthplace and ethnicity and that uniformity across cities is unlikely. Since zonal structuring is involved only to a minor degree these are matters which more logically could be pursued in another context.


TABLE V WORK SITE OF HOUSEHOLD HEAD BY ZONE

Location N %

Central Business District Balance of Zone 1 Zone 2 Zone 3 Zone 4 or beyond No usual place No answer

Total

1474 19.8 85 2 11.5

1921 25.9 1893 25.5 1086 14.6 202 2.7

1749 -

9176

J O U R N E Y TO WORK

While generally acknowledged to be of importance, the implications of the journey to work upon residential location are not extensively researched because data on work site location are not routinely included in Census publications and because such data, when they are presented as part of Tract information, are not in a form that makes detailed analysis possible. Special data for Canada have recently been analysed by Gera and Kuhn (1981) and there is various other work from the U.S. (for example, Duncan, 1956).

Changes in the location of work sites would undoubtedly have implications to residential patterning and recent u. s. literature is concerned with these develop- ments. It seems accepted in the U.S. literature that job sites are decentralizing from the core and the more active concern is whether the higher status occupations, said to have heretofore resisted such a shift, are now beginning to leave the central business district as well (see Sly and Tayman, 1980). Of course, this single cross-sectional survey cannot address the question of a trend in the decentralization of workplace directly.

If the ideal-typical city has the bulk of its workplaces in the core, this is certainly not true for contemporary Canada. As Table v shows, for the cases used in this analysis, only 19.8 per cent reported the household head worked in the Central Business District proper. Even with the balance of Zone I included, only 31.3 per cent report what can be called Downtown job sites. For analysis, work site is recoded as a dichotomy distinguishing between those reporting a downtown work site (c.B.D. or balance of Zone I) and all others (including no answers). Using this coding, 25.3 per cent are coded as central city workers. This figure varies across the cities. It is less than 15 per cent in Hamilton, St. Catharines, Sudbury and Windsor, and over 35 per cent in Chicoutimi and Halifax.

Workplace site is significantly related to zone of residence, as those reporting a downtown work site score lower on the measure of decentralization ( b = -. 175, s.e. = .015). As shown in Table VI this relationship remains when controls are introduced for socioeconomic status and also for the complete model, including life cycle stage, ethnicity and city as well as SES. When the whole model is used, in fact, the effect of job location is greater than that of income.

433 S E S A N D C O N C E N T R I C Z O N E S O F C A N A D I A N CITIES

TABLE VI WORK SITE AND URBAN ZONE

Logged Work Multiple R Variables used Education Occupation Income Place (R Square)

Work site, sES -.005 ,001 .294 -.198 .210 (.002) (.002) (.ole) (.015) (.044)

Full model ,002 .001 .166 -.189 .359 (.002) C.002) (.019) (.014) (. 129)

N as in Table I

If anything there is a minute tendency for the effects of job location to strengthen after controls. This is because the labour force found located in the downtown is of higher socioeconomic standing than the balance. The correlations of status with reporting a downtown job location are: for education, .17; for occupation, .x3; and for income, .II. The suburbs attract higher status people, but job location acts as a countervailing force. As a consequence, when both job location and SES are in the equation both are strengthened, although the magnitude of the effect is barely discernible since all the associations are quite modest.

Work site plays a further role in influencing residential location, as an interaction effect. The effects are not clear in the case of socioeconomic status, but show clearly when the relationships of life cycle stage or ethnicity to zonal location are tabulated separately for those reporting downtown job sites. In each case the strength of the association is greater among those with downtown jobs. For life cycle stage, the multiple R equals .358 among those working downtown compared to .257 for the balance. For ethnicity, the Rs are .iiz and .069 respectively. When the whole model is used, the multiple R among downtown workers (.412) is therefore appreciably higher than the balance (.323). The city core is of greater importance to those households in which the head works downtown. If the core is eroding as a work site, its importance to the zonal structuring of the city should be expected to erode as well.

C O N C L U S I O N S

In his famous denunciation of ecological correlations, Robinson, it must be remembered, was concerned about an illegitimate practice then common in sociology, the use of ecological correlations when ‘the obvious purpose is to discover something about individuals’ (1950: 352). There is nothing inappropriate in using ecological correlations for ecological purposes, that is, when the interest is ’in the properties of areas as such’ (352). This canon has been followed by those who have analysed the Canadian Tract books and their research is therefore not to be criticized on these grounds. This research simply asks a further question: have the various results from this work applicability at the individual level? I t is found that the major patterns observed by those who have based their analyses upon Census Tract books are confirmed by the survey results. Life cycle stage and

434 PETER C. P I N E 0

socioeconomic status are related to zonal location, with the former the much more important variable. Ethnicity is an extremely weak factor. In these instances one can conclude that the variation within Tracts is similar to that occurring between them and no distortion occurs between the two levels of analysis.

One difference must be noted however. As all would have anticipated the individual level estimates of the relationships between zonal location and other characteristics are lower than those from the Tract data. What is strilung is how very much lower they are. While analysis of the variation across Tracts suggests some 22 per cent of the variation in socioeconomic status and 63 per cent in life cycle stage can be explained by zones,6 the results from the survey lead to estimates of 2.5 and 8 per cent respectively. The difference in magnitude has consequences, of which three may be suggested: I/ The survey results suggest that any concerns about suburban zones being institutionally complete, high-status ghettoes in contemporary Canadian cities are largely groundless. Status ghettoes may, of course, exist at the sub-zonal level. 2/ The large measures of association coming from the Tract analysis have perhaps left the impression that there is little more to be learned about the factors influencing the structure of contemporary cities, while the survey results suggest considerable scope for the identification of further causal factors. Thus job location alone is found to function as a further factor, of greater power than income. 3/ With the relationships thus exaggerated, comparisons between cities or across Censuses become difficult as the differences become large and erratic. It is by comparing the strength of different factors within cities and within years that analysts have been able to make good use of the Tract information.

Beyond these general points, the specific theory which has been tested in this analysis, the Burgess concentric zone theory, is found to receive modest support. The zones describe the expected patterns for ethnicity, and, of the measures of socioeconomic status, at least for income. (It must be noted that the more important factor, life cycle stage, was not identified, or at least given emphasis, by Burgess himself, but rather in the later work by social area analysts.) While the relationships are quite weak, the degree of support is perhaps not truly much less than that earned by most sociological theories. Possibly Canada provides an unusually hard test; Goldberg and Mercer have suggested that Canadian cities show less relationship between socioeconomic status and centrality than do u. s. cities, although they note limitations to their data (1986: 158,205,252, but see 163). In any case, to be able to claim some support more than 50 years after the original publication of the theory is certainly some achievement.

The question may be raised whether the very modest level of support for the theory is all that it ever would have received or whether social change has reduced the socioeconomic differentials across zones. Some u. s. research (Choldin and Hanson, 1982), which also distinguishes between residential areas built before and after World War 11, suggests that the post-war suburbs never possessed the high socioeconomic status that some of the pre-war suburbs had. Rather, the new suburbs were built from the start for a lower status market. In historical perspective it may become clear that a combination of factors involved in the great construction period following World War II produced housing for the average citizen rather than the elite. The factors would include the kind of government

435 SES A N D CONCENTRIC Z O N E S O F CANADIAN CITIES

support for new construction that began during this period, the ease of transportation that accompanied cheap fuel and nearly universal car ownership, and the general growth of affluence in the population. This process would lead to the reduction in the strength of socioeconomic differences between the suburbs and the old city permitting an increase in the relationship between life cycle stage and zone.

The evidence from the survey showing that zonal structuring is weaker among those who do not work downtown suggests another possibility. Insofar as the downtown core has become a less important work site, it has likely lost its salience as an anchoring point in city structure, producing weakening relationships for ethnicity and life cycle stage, and possibly also for socioeconomic status.

These two arguments suggest differing consequences. Were the relationships of social factors to the zones as strong as the Tract data suggest, they might be considered mutually inconsistent. But with the relationships as modest as they are, it seems reasonable to suppose that two processes may be operating simultaneous- ly. In the short run, as the downtown continues to be of some importance, life cycle effects will grow at the expense of socioeconomic status: In the long run, as the core further erodes as a work site, both effects may diminish with the population becoming oriented toward focuses which are diverse, even idiosyncratic.

NOTES

I See Robinson (1950). An anonymous reader notes Hanushek and Jackson have suggested that better model specification should reduce the danger of distortion in the estimates (1977: 84-6). However, the enormous R-square produced from their five independent variable model (0.86) serves as a reminder that the problem of exaggeration remains as real as ever.

z The magnitude of any differences can be estimated, since the respondents were asked the number of miles they lived from the downtown. The answers correlate .53 with zonal location (unweighted), but this is attenuated by the long, sparse tail in the distribution by miles. Recoding miles so that eight or more becomes eight miles produces a correlation with zone of .73. This ranges from .52 to .91 across the cities, with a median of .79. Low relationships are found in Chicoutimi-Jonquiere, St. Catharines-Niagara and Thunder Bay. In the main, perfect concentric circles would not differ greatly from the zones which were established.

3 As a precaution, all the regressions in the tables which follow were re-computed with the cities weighted equally. There were no major changes. Income appears marginally stronger using these weights, as the zero order correlation of logged income with zone increases from .i54 to .185. The effects of this difference persist through the later equations, but at the expense of such variables as life cycle stage, ethnicity and work site, so that the multiple correlations of later equations are little changed. Thus in a typical example, the final equation of Table VI, the multiple regression coefficient with cities equally weighted is .338, hardly different from the original of .359.

4 Education codes were as follows: no schooling, 1; some grade school, 4; primary school (with graduation/ certificate), 8; some high school (no graduation/ certificate), 10;

high school (with graduation/ certificate), 12 ; technical training beyond high school,

436 P E T E R C . P I N E 0

13; some college or university, 14; Bachelor’s degree, 16; Master’s degree, 18; Professional degree or Doctorate, 19. Income was coded to the mid-point of the categories given with the highest category, $ioo,ooo and over coded to $125,000.

5 An anonymous reviewer suggests extensive apartment development near the core may have reduced the sprawl in Victoria and Vancouver.

6 The medians of the results for 14 metropolitan areas, 1971 Census, presented by Balakrishnan and Jarvis (1979: 224).

REFERENCES

Atkinson, Tom 1979 A Study of Urban Concerns: Final Report to the Ministry of State for Urban Affairs.

Balakrishnan, T. R. 1976 ’Ethnic residential segregation in the metropolitan areas of Canada. ’ Canadian Jour-

1982 ‘Changing patterns of ethnic residential segregation in the methropolitan areas of

Balakrishnan, T.R., and George K. Jarvis 1976 ’Socioeconomic differentiation in Urban Canada. ’ Canadian Review of Sociology and

Anthropology i j ( 2 ) : 204-16 1979 ‘Changing patterns of spatial differentiation in Urban Canada, 1961-1971.’ Canadi-

an Review of Sociology and Anthropology 16(2): 218-27 Breton, Raymond 1964 ’Institutional completeness of ethnic communities and the personal relations of

Burgess, Ernest W. 1925 ’The growth of the city: an introduction to a research project.’ In R.E. Park, E.W.

Downsview: York University, Institute of Behavioural Research

nal of Sociology i (4): 481-98

Canada.’ Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology 19(1) : 92-110

immigrants. ‘ American Journal of Sociology 70(2) : 193-205

Burgess, and R.D. McKenzie (eds.), The City. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation 1979 Public Priorities in Urban Canada: A Survey of Community Concerns Choldin, Harvey M., and Claudine Hanson 1982 ‘Status shifts in the city.‘ American Sociological Review 47(1): 129-41 Darroch, A. Gordon, and Wilfred G. Marston 1971 ‘The social class basis of ethnic residential segregation: the Canadian case.’ Ameri-

Dreidger, Leo, and Glenn Church 1974 ’Residential segregation and institutional completeness: a comparison of ethnic mi-

Duncan, Beverly 1956 ‘Factors in work-residence separation: wage and salary workers, Chicago, 1951. ’

Firey, Walter 1945 ’Sentiment and symbolism as ecological variables. ‘ American Sociological Review

can Journal of Sociology 77(3): 491- 510

norities.‘ Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology ii(i) : 30-52

American Sociological Review z i ( i ) : 48-56

10(2): 140-48

437 SES A N D C O N C E N T R I C Z O N E S OF C A N A D I A N CITIES

Gera, Surendra, and Peter Kuhn 1981 'Occupation and the journey-to-work: some further analysis.' Socio-economic

Goldberg, Michael A., and John Mercer 1986 The Myth of the North American City: Continentalism Challenged. Vancouver:

Guest, Avery M. 1969 'The applicability of the Burgess zonal hypothesis to Urban Canada. ' Demography

Hanushek, Eric A., and John E. Jackson 1977 Statistical Methods for Social Scientists. New York: Academic Press Harris, Chauncy D., and Edward L. Ullman 1945 'The nature of cities.' Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social

Hop, Homer 1939 The Structure and Growth of Residential Neighbourhoods in American Cities.

Hunter A.A., and A.H. Latif 1973 'Stability and change in the ecological structure of Winnipeg: a multi-method

Institute of Behavioural Research 1982 Urban Concerns Survey: Project Description, Guide to Sample and Codebook.

Murdie, Robert A. 1969 Factorial Ecology of Metropolitan Toronto, 1951-1961: An Essay on the Social

Planning Science 15(2): 83-93

University of British Columbia Press

6(3): 271-7

Science 242: 7-17

Washington: Federal Housing Admnistration

approach.' Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology io(4): 308-33

Downsview: York University

Geography of the City. Chicago: University of Chicago, Department of Geography Research Paper No. 116

Nicholson, T.G., and Maurice H. Yeates 1969 'The ecological and spatial structure of the socio-economic characteristics of

Pineo, Peter C., John Porter, and Hugh A. McRoberts 1977 'The 1971 census and the socioeconomic classification of occupations. ' Canadian

Porter, John 1965 The Vertical Mosaic: An analysis of Social Class and Power in Canada. Toronto:

Rees, Philip H. 1979 Residential Patterns in American Cities, 1960. Chicago: University of Chicago

Richmond, Anthony H. 1972 Ethnic Residential Segregation in Metropolitan Toronto. Downsview: York Univer-

Robinson, W.S. 1950 'Ecological correlations and the behavior of individuals. ' American Sociological Re-

Shevky Eshref, and Wendell Bell 1955 Social Area Analysis. Stanford: Standford University Press

Winnipeg, 1961.' Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology 6(3): 162-78

Review of Sociology and Anthropology 14(1): 91-102

University of Toronto Press

Department of Geography Research Paper No. 189

s i t y Institute of Behavioural Research

view 15(3): 351-57

438 PETER c . P I N E O

Sly, David F., and Jeffrey Tayman 1980 ’Metropolitan morphology and population mobility: the theory of ecological expan-

Statistics Canada 1971 Occupation Classification Manual Census of Canada 1971, Based on Canadian

Classification and Dictionary of Occupations, Volume 2. Ottawa: Information Canada

sion reexamined.’ American Journal of Sociology 86(1): 119-38

Steams, Linda Brewster, and John R. Logan 1986 ‘The racial structuring of the market and segregation in suburban areas.’ Social

Forces 65(1): 28-42

of Community Mental Health

An Interdisciplinary Journal Biannual, ISSN 0713-3936

Edited by Edward Bennett, Ph.D. and Barry Trute, D.S.W.

The Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health publishes articles concerning the promotion o positive mentil health, and the prevention and treatment of mental health problems in communiq settings. Recent theme issues include Women and Mental Health and Community Mental Health Selviees for the Chronically Mentally Disabled ClCMH also features book reviews.

Institution Volume 7 (1988) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$30.00

Individual Volume 7 (1988) .................. .$20.00

Student Volume 7 (1988) .................. .$15.00

Please add $5.00 for United States and $10.00 for other muntries per volume. Limited back issues are available. Send check or money order to:

Wllfrld Laurier Unhrarsity Press Hlllfrid hurler University

Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3c5

Volumes 7-9 (19881990) . . . . . . . . . . . .$80.00

Volumes 7-9 (1988-1990) . . . . . . . . . . . .$ss.00

Volumes 7-9 (19881990) . . . . . . . . . . . .$40.00

Documents

Socioeconomic status and the concentric zonal structure of Canadian cities