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Open Access Thesis

Keywords

County government--Iowa; County government; Politics and government; Iowa--Politics and government; Iowa; Academic theses;

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to classify, or group, the fifteen county seats of northeast Iowa according to selected demographic, social, and economic phenomena. To achieve such groupings various methods and techniques of multivariate analysis were utilized. The desire to group the county seats based upon their likenesses or homogeneous traits was paramount. A brief historical overview of Iowa, and a discussion of the reasons for county seat selection, were used to set the background for a multivariate classification of northeast Iowa county seats. Selected accounts of northeast Iowa county establishment and organization were cited as an introductory aid in grouping the counties in question. A:fter the historical overview, a multivariate analysis of this part of Iowa used the following methods and techniques: (1) ranking, (2) frequency distributions, (3) rank-correlation, (4) elementary linkage analysis, (5) approximation of factor loadings, (6) weighted ranks, (7) a bivariate scatter diagram, (8) distance matrix analysis, (9) graphic profiles, (10) "R" mode analysis, (11) "Q" mode analysis, (12) perception, and (13) the weighted rank profile model. From a comparison of the seven groupings derived, at least three significant observations resulted. First, it seemed that despite the variety of methods there was a strong similarity between the derived groups. Secondly, there was also the question of whether the reasons for the original site selections were functionally related to the current social and economic status of the cities. This was not the primary purpose of the study, but from a cursory evaluation there seems to be no marked relationship between the original reasons for site selection and the contemporary groupings of the cities based on current social and economic factors. A third intriguing issue was the question of whether the derived groups of cities had any hierarchical ranking. An initial comparison revealed that there was some degree of correspondence between the groups and the relative economic status of the cities involved. Even though the different techniques and methods did not result in identical homogeneous groupings of the communities in question, the degree of correspondence between the groupings was strong. The groupings derived in the present study, and the composite graphical portrayals of the social and economic profiles of the cities, are a step towards a clearer comparative understanding of the county seats of northeast Iowa. Furthermore, the particular application of the techniques used in the study has theoretical significance in terms of the contribution to the more general problem of multivariate regionalization.

Year of Submission

1969

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Department of Geography

First Advisor

Basheer K. Nijim

Second Advisor

Roy Chung

Third Advisor

David E. Ramsett

Comments

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Date Original

1969

Object Description

1 PDF file (118 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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