What Can Catastrophe Theory Contribute to the Study of Cities? Two Examples and a Question

Geography is a science concerned with forms: the forms of the earth and the forms of its settlements, if we understand the term form as the way of filling space. It is therefore legitimate to ask how a resolutely structuralist approach such as that of René Thom’s catastrophe theory, which places form as the central object and claims to be relatively universal, can shed light on geographical issues.