Suburbanization and Centralization Dynamics in the Social Reconfiguration of Metropolitan Space

Suburbanization and centralization are two key factors in the shape of metropolitan space, involving the initial concentration of the population in inner cities and subsequent suburbanization processes. However, beyond the materialization of structural forces, these movements are residential choices that households and individuals make over their life courses. This chapter aims to explain centralization and suburbanization as residential choices. In a first step, we propose a theoretical framework to understand the complexity of the events that trigger these choices, as well as the influence that social, life and spatial contexts have on them. In a second step, an statistical explanation of these decisions is constructed, implementing a strategy to operationalize the proposed theoretical framework with the cross-sectional data available in Spain. The main results highlight how suburbanization and centralization are diverse movements that, far from having a single explanation, vary substantially according to the spatial and life-cycle contexts of the actors.