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The following points highlight the major theoretical and methodological developments that took place in geography. The developments are: 1. Location Theory 2. Central Place Theory 3. Social Physics 4. Diffusion of Innovation 5. Regional Science 6. Locational Analysis.
1. Location Theory:
It is a body of theories which seek to account for the location of economic activities. Location theory was formally admitted into the developing corpus of human geography mainly through the efforts of W. L. Garrison (1959) and his associates of Seattle, and on the other side of the Atlantic through the efforts of Peter Hagget (1965) who stressed on the ‘fundamental role of locational concepts within human geography’, and called for a reaffirmation of its geometric tradition.
However, the classical location theories of Von Thunen on the use of areas in agriculture (1826) and Alfred Weber’s study of industrial location (1909) were economic theories. Later on Ohlin, Hoover, Losch and Isard attempted to develop the concept of the areal and regional aspects of economic activity, which could be modelled into Neo-Ricardian economics, and which had some relevance in earlier works on theoretical geography.
2. Central Place Theory:
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It is a major theory within urban geography providing an account of the size and distribution of settlements within an urban system. Walter Christaller was the first geographer to make a major contribution to location with his famous thesis of 1933 which was translated by Baskin as ‘Central Places in Southern Germany’ (1966). He dealt with urban settlements solely as centres for retailing goods and services.
He used the concepts of range (the maximum distance a consumer will travel to purchase a good or service) and threshold (the minimum volume of business necessary for an establishment to be economically viable) and noted that different retailing functions varied in their ranges and thresholds. These were grouped into orders, or types of establishments with similar characteristics.
Another approach in the Central Place Theory was developed by August Losch (1954) who attempted to incorporate manufacturing as well as retailing functions in his model of urban system. He identified a separate range, threshold and hexagonal hinterland for each establishment type.
These two approaches were central to the new quantitative urban geography of the 1950s and 1960s. However, in Kuhn’s terminology, Christaller’s model could not be accommodated within the reigning paradigm.
3. Social Physics:
It is an approach to the study of human society which draws upon analogy with the physical world for analysis of human behaviour in the aggregate. J. Q. Stewart (1947) of Princeton University together with Willian Warntz (1959) developed social physics to create what they called macro geography.
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Relying on the postulate that interactions between places are directly proportional to the product of the masses, and inversely proportional to some function of the distance between them, Stewart pointed out the isomorphic (equal form or structure) relationship between this empirical generalisation and Newton’s law of gravitation.
This concept in human geography is known as the gravity model. He pointed out that ‘human beings obey mathematical rules resembling in a general way some of the primitive laws of physics’. Warntz also applied analogy models from physics in his studies of population potentials.
Zipf (1949) was another influential authority on social physics after Second World War. He devised a ‘principle of least effort’ according to which individuals organise their lives so as to minimise the amount of work which they undertake. Movement involves work, and so the minimisation of movement is a part of the general principle of least effort.
4. Diffusion of Innovation:
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It means the spread of a phenomenon over space and time. Though the concept of diffusion is not new in geography as it was developed in an organised way by Ratzel, but it was Hagerstrand of the University of Lund, Sweden) who quantified the concept, developed the diffusion model, and provided a theoretical structure to the concept.
Hagerstrand became interested in the possibilities of investigating the process of innovation with the aid of mathematical and statistical procedures. He stressed the spatial processes, and his thesis of 1953, later translated by Pred as ‘Innovation Diffusion as a Spatial Process’ (1967), examined the diffusion of several innovations among the population of a part of central Sweden.
Hagerstrand’s diffusion model represents an interaction matrix that suggests the contours of a generalised or mean information field, which structures the way in which information circulates through a regional system. These flows are moulded by both physical barriers and individual resistances which together check the transformation and so shape successive diffusion waves which break into the adoption surface.
With the aid of the so-called ‘Monte Carlo stimulation’ which involves the use of random samples from a known probability distribution, he was able to construct a general stochastic model of the process of diffusion.
The stochastic Hagerstrand model enabled the spread of innovation to be stimulated and later tested against empirical study. Much work has since been done, both on the process of diffusion and even more, on patterns of spatial spread which, it is assumed, result from diffusion processes.
5. Regional Science:
Theoretical revolution in the contemporary American human geography led to the emergence of the regional science. It is a discipline linking economics, geography and planning and is concerned with theoretical and quantitative analysis of regional economics and problems.
Regional science is the creation of Walter Isard (1956), an economist who developed spatial components into his models, in part to provide a stronger theoretical basis for urban and regional planning than had existed previously.
Regional science is economics with a spatial emphasis and it tends to focus on mathematical modelling and economic theorising. The focus of regional science has encompassed both quantitative empirical modelling and more purely theoretical analysis of location problems and regional economics.
Major work in empirical modelling has included regional input-output models, industrial complex analysis and gravity model of spatial interaction and statistical work of central place theory. The development of regional science theory was strongly influenced by contemporary trends in economic theory.
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In human geography, it provided an umbrella revolution. Geographers such as B. J. L. Berry, M. Dacey, R. Morrill, W. Tobler and W. Warntz were associated with the Regional Science Association, and many of the classical papers on quantitative geography appeared in the Journal of Regional Science.
6. Locational Analysis:
It is an approach to human geography which focuses on the spatial arrangement of phenomena on the Earth’s surface; hence the approach is sometimes referred to as spatial science. Fundamental to the approach is the philosophy of positivism, giving emphasis on models and laws of spatial arrangements; hence it has a close link with quantitative revolution. Peter Haggett’s Locational Analysis in Human Geography (1965) is a classic on this aspect.
He wanted that the geometric tradition in geography must be revived in an approach that had an emphasis placed squarely on asking question about the order, location order, shown by the phenomena studied traditionally as human geography.
He realises the need to adopt a systems approach that focuses on spatial patterns and linkages, to employ models as the stimuli to achieving understanding, and to use quantitative procedures as the means to precise statements (generalisations) about locational order.
Haggett’s major contribution lies in his depiction of pattern and order in spatial structures, being phrased within a decomposition of nodal regions into five geometrical elements (movement, networks, nodes, hierarchies and surfaces) and the sixth element, diffusion, was added in the second edition of this book.
The impact of locational analysis with its focus on spatial arrangements, models and quantification on human geography was substantial. Location theory indicates the nature of the normal science of the new paradigm, with work on spatial patterns, the links and flows between places in such patterns, the dynamics of the patterns and the preparation of alternative patterns through model building exercises that identify efficient solutions.