The Location-Allocation versus Functional Integration Debate: An Assessment in Terms of Linkage Effects

Abstract

The Belsky-Karaska critique of the functional integration approach to development maintains that its urban functions orientation to planning was originally designed for descriptive, not prescriptive, purposes and that functional integration neglects demand. These objections are examined in the contexts of the balanced versus unbalanced growth controversy and the hierarchical diffusion of innovation paradigm. Functional integration adopts a more developmental approach than does the application of location-allocation models, which nonetheless have value in their own right. The major goal of functional integration should be to induce linkage effects that will have beneficial, if not readily predictable, social and economic consequences. The relevance of functional integration would be enhanced by giving more attention to the economics of linkage effects, including the processes by which direct investment in agriculture induces urban functions.