Chauncy Harris

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Chauncy Dennison Harris (born January 31, 1914 in Logan , Utah , † December 26, 2003 in Chicago ) was an American geographer. He developed theoretical models and indices for classifying cities and was one of the most important western explorers of the geography of the Soviet Union .

Life

Chauncy Dennison Harris was born on January 31, 1914, the second son of Franklin S. Harris , president of Brigham Young University from 1921 to 1945 , and his wife Estella Spilsbury Harris. He studied first at BYU, from 1933 at the University of Chicago and in the meantime, on a Rhodes scholarship , at Oxford University and the London School of Economics . He then returned to Chicago and received his doctorate there in 1940. In the same year he married Edith Young, the marriage resulted in a daughter, Margaret.

After positions at Indiana University (1939-1941) and the University of Nebraska (1941-1943) and a further stay at the University of Chicago, Harris worked for the Office of Strategic Services in 1944/45 . Apart from visiting professorial positions, he again spent his entire career at the University of Chicago, where he was full professor from 1947, Samuel N. Harper professor from 1969 and, from 1973 until his retirement in 1984, Samuel N. Harper Distinguished Service Professor was. In 1950/51 Harris was visiting professor at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main . He also held the office of Secretary General and Treasurer of the International Geographical Union from 1968 to 1976 and served as President of the Association of American Geographers (1957/58) and the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (1962). Harris died on December 26, 2003 in Chicago a few weeks before his 90th birthday.

plant

Multi-core model by Harris and Ullman

Many of Harris' most important urban geography were published in a relatively short period between 1940 and 1945. In doing so, he used population data, in particular employee data, in order to identify structural settlement patterns by means of statistical methods. However, he did not set out his procedure methodologically and instead concentrated more on the presentation of the results, which is why Harris was not one of the real protagonists of the " quantitative revolution " of geography. Together with Edward Ullman , whom he had already met as a student in 1934, Harris developed the multi-core model of urban development, which they presented in the 1945 essay The Nature of Cities . In 1954 the article The Market as a Factor in the Localization of Industry in the United States appeared , in which Harris set up an index of the market potentials of regions.

In addition to American cities, Harris dealt with the geography of the Soviet Union at an early stage , although he was not able to tour the country for the first time until 1957. He also published several essays on Germany and, towards the end of his career, Japan. In addition, Harris, who mastered English, German, French and Russian, wrote numerous bibliographical works.

Awards and honors

Harris received honorary doctorates from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (D.Econ. 1956), Indiana University (LLD 1979), Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn and the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee (both 1991). Other awards included the Alexander von Humboldt medal of the Geographical Society (1978), the Cullum Geographical Medal of the American Geographical Society (1985) and the Victoria Medal of the Royal Geographical Society (1987). Harris was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1968) and the Polish Academy of Sciences .

Fonts (selection)

Monographs

  • Chauncy D. Harris: Salt Lake City: A regional capital . Chicago 1940 (dissertation).
  • Chauncy D. Harris: Cities of the Soviet Union: Studies in their functions, size, density, and growth (=  The monograph series of the Association of American Geographers . Volume 5 ). Rand McNally, Chicago 1970.

Essays

  • Chauncy D. Harris: A Functional Classification of Cities in the United States . In: Geographical Review . tape 33 , no. 1 , 1943, p. 86-99 .
  • Chauncy D. Harris: Suburbs . In: American Journal of Sociology . tape 49 , no. 1 , 1943, p. 1-13 .
  • Chauncy D. Harris and Edward L. Ullman: The Nature of Cities . In: Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science . tape 242 , 1945, pp. 7-17 , doi : 10.1177 / 000271624524200103 .
  • Chauncy D. Harris: The Cities of the Soviet Union . In: Geographical Review . tape 35 , 1945, p. 107-121 .
  • Chauncy D. Harris and Gabriele Wülker : The Refugee Problem of Germany . In: Economic Geography . tape 29 , no. 1 , 1953, p. 10-25 .
  • Chauncy D. Harris: The Market as a Factor in the Localization of Industry in the United States . In: Annals of the Association of American Geographers . tape 44 , no. 4 , 1954, pp. 315-348 .

literature

Festschriften

  • George J. Demko and Roland J. Fuchs (Eds.): Geographical studies on the Soviet Union: Essays in honor of Chauncy D. Harris . Chicago 1984.
  • Michael P. Conzen (Ed.): World patterns of modern urban change: Essays in honor of Chauncy D. Harris . Chicago 1986.
  • Eckart Ehlers (Ed.): Modeling the City - Cross-Cultural Perspectives. Lectures given on the occasion of the award of an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn to Professor Chauncy D. Harris. Ph.D., D.Litt., Drs.hc, Chicago (=  Colloquium geographicum . Volume 22 ). Ferd. Dümmlers Verlag, Bonn 1992.

Obituaries

  • Brian JL Berry: Chauncy D. Harris, 1914-2003 . In: Urban Geography . tape 25 , no. 1 , 2004, p. 1-13 .
  • Andrew R. Bond: Chauncy D. Harris, 1914-2003: An Appreciation . In: Eurasian Geography and Economics . tape 45 , no. 2 , 2004, p. 83-89 .
  • Marvin W. Mikesell: In Memoriam: Chauncy Dennison Harris (1914-2003) . In: Annals of the Association of American Geographers . tape 94 , no. 4 , 2004, p. 982-991 .
  • Alexander B. Murphy: Chauncy D. Harris (1914-2003), Geographer Extraordinaire . In: Geographical Review . tape 94 , no. 1 , 2004, p. 107-114 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Herbert Wilhelmy : Laudation Chauncy D. Harris . In: Eckart Ehlers (Ed.): Modeling the City - Cross-Cultural perspectives. Lectures given on the occasion of the award of an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn to Professor Chauncy D. Harris. Ph.D., D.Litt., Drs.hc, Chicago (=  Colloquium geographicum ). tape 22 . Ferd. Dümmlers Verlag, Bonn 1992, p. 9-15 .
  2. ^ Wolfgang Saxon: Chauncy Harris, 89, Geographer Of a Little-Known Soviet Union ( en ) In: The New York Times . January 12, 2004. Retrieved August 4, 2015.
  3. ^ Brian JL Berry: Chauncy D. Harris, 1914-2003 . In: Urban Geography . tape 25 , no. 1 , 2004, p. 1-13 .
  4. ↑ a b Marvin W. Mikesell: In Memoriam: Chauncy Dennison Harris (1914-2003) . In: Annals of the Association of American Geographers . tape 94 , no. 4 , 2004, p. 982-991 .
personal data
SURNAME Harris, Chauncy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Harris, Chauncy Dennison (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American geographer
DATE OF BIRTH January 31, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Logan , Utah
DATE OF DEATH December 26, 2003
Place of death Chicago