Urban ecology and residential location theories: Application in nigeria's socio-cultural milieu

Abstract

Urban ecological studies are generally concerned with the spatial distribution of population characteristics, organisations, activities and behaviours across the urban terrain. These spatial distributions are taken to reflect the operation of socio-economic processes. Anglo-American urban ecological investigators had formulated much of the prevailing urban ecological theories of today. These theories were based on studies of their own socio-cultural and economic environments, which were by no means universal. This study, applies the principles of these well-known theories to a different socio-economic and cultural environment—Nigerian, with a view to testing their cross-cultural validity. This is done (i) by testing some empirical data on the city of Lagos, upon some specific propositions embodied in these theories; with a view towards their verification and validation; and (ii) by examining the over-all explanatory power of the theories in accounting for broad urban ecological patterns as revealed by data or information on the study city, and culture. The findings suggest that while similarities in urban ecological patterns in the two environments are discernible in some variables, they significantly differ in others, and even where the patterns appear to be similar, they are explainable by quite different factors. Urban ecological patterns could therefore be said to be culture-specific.