SPATIAL ORGANISATION OF A

SOCIETY
DEFINITION
•Spatial organisation refers to the arrangement of physical
and human objects or activities on the earth surface.
•It study the foundation from which space is created
 THEORIES OF SIZES AND SPACING
• A theory is a set of statements or principles devised to explain a group of facts
or phenomenon.
• A set of ideas that are intended to explain the complex reality.
• Location Theory attempt to predict where a business will or should be located.
• Location Theory Considers:
– Variable costs-energy, transportation costs & labor costs
– Friction of distance-increasing distance =increased time & cost
• Location of an industry for an example is dependent on economic, political,
cultural features as well as the level of technology.
• Theories of sizes and spacing try to explain the differences in spatial size, the
distances between nodes or centres of activities.
• There are three main theories in this respect (Industrial, central place and
agricultural location theory).
 Agricultural location theory
• The theory was developed by German economics called
Von Thunen.
• It is one of the classical theories.
• The theory tries to explain the agricultural Land use
Pattern answering the where and how question
• Explain the agricultural landuse at a given location
• Put the emphasis on economic factors rather than
treating physical factors as the main forces
• Distance from market
• Distance decay influences the market value of the land
 Aim of Von Thunen Model
• Showing how and why agricultural landuse varies
with the distance from the market

• Economic rent  net return from a unit of land

 A. Assumptions of the theory
A. Explicit assumptions: precise and clearly expressed
leaving nothing to implication
B. Implicit assumptions: implied though not directly
 A. Explicit assumptions
• 1. An isolated state
• 2. Centrally located market
•  the sole urban market
• 3. Isotropic plain
•  production and transport costs were the same everywhere
• 4. Uniform transportation and transport costs
•  Only one form of transport (Wagon)
•  Increase distance, increase transport cost
• 5. Farmers are economic men and aim at maximizing
profits
• 6. Same market price
The reasons for establishing several assumptions was to
simplify the complex reality
 Two major concepts of Agricultural location
theory
• Economic Rent
• Distance decay
 A. Economic rent
•  Net return
•  Highest bid rent ability
•  Displace all others
 A. Economic rent
•  Net return
• = 1. Market price – 2. Production cost – 3. Transport cost
• 1. Farmers got the same price (revenue) for their crops
• 2. Production cost = constant
• 3. Transport cost increase with distance
• = Net return decreases with increasing distance from
the market
 Formula for locational rent
Agricultural locational rent
 Economic rent --- Continue
•  Different crops have different location rent distribution
patterns (bit rent curves)
•  Different crops compete with each other’s farmland
•  Concentric land use pattern was formed
 B. Distance decay
• Locational rent decreasing with increasing distance
from market
Describe how the net profit from wheat growing varies
with distance from the urban market.

• Net return decreases with increasing distance

from market

•  At the market, transport cost contributes nothing

to total cost. As there is no transport cost incurred,
net return at market
• = market price – production cost
• = R40 - R10
• = R30
 EFFECTS OF DISTANCE DECAY

• At point 180km from the market, net return = R0,

farmers would not produce because there is no
incentive.

• Beyond point 180km from market, a loss will be

incurred in producing any crops. Thus, farmers would
not produce any crops.
 Theory content
• A. Intensity of the Theory
• Land use intensity declines with distance from the
market.
• More intensive farming activities tend to locate near the
market.
•  Less intensive farming activities tend to locate far away
from the market.
• Crops with the highest economic rent will be grown. This
concept applies to any location.
The landuse pattern
 1. Free cash cropping
(Market Gardening)
• Horticulture (vegetables and fruit) and dairying
• Perishable as close as possible to market
– Low speed of transport
– No refrigeration
– Require milk and vegetable in city + price are high higher economic
rent
• Intensive labour input, multi-cropping, heavy fertilizing
• Horse provide locomotive power
 2. Forestry (firewood)
• Great demand of wood
• Bulky (heavy and big)
• High transport cost = economic rent decrease
fast with increase of distance
 3. Crop Alternation System (Six-year crop
rotation)
• Crop without fallowing
• 6-year crop rotation
• conserved soil through crop rotation
 Transport cost

• 3. Transport cost has little effect on farms located

near the market

• 4. Increase in transport cost

•  contraction of the concentric ring because farms
near the extensive margin become unprofitable

• 5. Decrease in transport cost

•  extensive margin expand
 4. Three-field system
• 1/3 pasture
• 1/3 field crop
• 1/3 fallow
• Rotation
 5. Stock Farming
• 400km away
• Extensive grazing activities
 Theory summary
• In 1826, Von Thunen noted the followings:
– Production costs are nothing simple
– There is no large town that does not lie on a
navigable river or canal
– Competing markets
– Different places possess different physical factors
– Farmers do not maximize profits
– Famers have their own preference for crops
 Summary continue
• Increase in market price and decrease in
production cost lead to an increase in profits
 expansion of extensive margin

• Decrease in market cost and increase in

production cost lead to an decrease in profits
 contraction of extensive margin
 Merits
A. show the importance of economic factors
B. show how does distance affect intensity
C. showed the change of agricultural land use
pattern (by transport cost)
D. first theory to show the spatial distribution of
agricultural activities
 Demerits
• A. The assumption that there is the existence of an
isolated state or a closed economy is unrealistic in general.
• B. Ignoring change over time
• C. Emergence of specialized regions characterized by a
particular type of agricultural land use
• D. In the real world farmers are satisfiers instead of
economic men
• E. Cooperative production could be found
• F. Neglecting the government policy
• G. Freight rate in reality is not directly proportional to
distance but is step-shaped or being divided into different
freight rate zones.
 Conclusion
• Merits  succeed in pointing out the transport
cost and distance from the market constitute effect on
the location of farming activities

• Demerits  neglected the impact of urbanization

on intensity of farming
 The Industrial Location Theory
• An Industry is a classification that refers groups of companies
that are related on their primary business activities of
processing materials into valuable goods. It could also be
defined as the aggregate of manufacturing or technically
productive enterprises in a particular fields. It is named after its
principal product, eg. Steel industry, automobile
• Industry refers to an economic activity concerned with the
processing of raw materials, manufacturing of goods in factories
and the services which surround the use of these goods
• Industrial location is a strategic placement of various economic
activities in relation to some specific factors.
 The geography of industrial location cont.
• There are different types of industries:
• Manufacturing Industry- which involves the conversion of
raw materials or assembly of parts to form a finished
product
• Service Industry – involves service provision that is valued in
terms of value of output rather than the size of space were
the actual operations are taking place.
• Firms are economic and legal units and may consists of a
large number of factories or plants as well as offices.
• Factories are generally smaller than firms, they have
individual locations.
 Classification of industries
• Industries are classified in terms of their kind
of operation or activities.
• Their location is determined by principles of
location and influenced by the factors of
location.
• There are primary to quaternary
 Primary industry
• Involves the extractive activities
• Extract natural resources both renewable and nonrenewable sources
• These are industries that deals directly with natural resources
• Primary industry usually is also known as handicrafts
• It is estimated that in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, some 80 - 85 % of
the industrial workers are employed in handicraft industry
• Renewable resources—those that can be used without being permanently
depleted, such as forests, water, fishing grounds, and agricultural land
– Overexploitation of renewable resources does causes depletion
– Example of the 1990s worldwide crisis in oceanic fishing industry as result
of overfishing
• Nonrenewable resources are depleted when used — example of minerals
and petroleum
 Secondary industry
• These are manufacturing industries
• They deal with assembling or packaging and processing of materials
• Most of the world’s secondary industrial activity has traditionally been found in
developed countries of the mid-latitudes
– Especially true in parts of Anglo-America, Europe, Russia, and Japan
– In the many countries, secondary industries are clustered around the
Manufacturing Belt
– Manufacturing occupies the central core of Europe, surrounded by a less
industrialized periphery
• Industrial belts usually consist of several zones, each dominated by a
particular kind of industry
– Iron and steel zone
– Coal mining in another
– Textiles in a third
 Secondary industry
• Manufacturing now booming in core countries mainly requires a highly
skilled or artisanal work force
– “High-tech” firms produce quality consumer goods
– Blue-collar work force has proven largely unable to acquire needed new skills
– High-tech manufacturers employ far fewer workers than the former heavy
industries
– New companies tend to be concentrated in relatively small districts sometimes
called technopoles
• Deindustrialization describes the decline and fall of once-prosperous
factory and mining areas
– Brings demoralization and erosion of the spirit of place
– Western Germany’s reaction to deindustrialization
• Maintained a high proportion of its work force by reinvesting for high productivity
• Offered high wages
• Specialized in expensive export-oriented products
 Tertiary industry
• Tertiary industries are mainly on retailing and transportation
• Regional differences exist in relative importance of the various modes of transport
– In Russia and Ukraine
• Highways have little industrial significance
• Railroads, and to a lesser extent, waterways carry most of transport load
– In the U.S., highways became most important, while railroad system declined
– Western European nations rely heavily on greater balance between rail, highway,
and waterway transport
• Rotterdam, Europe’s busiest port and one of the world’s largest is shipping gateway
to Western Europe and major outlet for Germany’s Ruhr and other industrial districts
along the Rhine River.
• Container ships carry materials and goods to and from overseas while barges ply the
river.
• Shipping offices, shipyards and dry docks, warehouses, cargo and container cranes,
supertanker berths, and oil storage tanks are only some of the facilities located here
 Tertiary industry
– In more developed countries, such services as electronic transfer of
funds and telecommunications between computers continents apart
increasingly rival traditional importance of railroads or trucks
– Utilities also belong in the tertiary sector
– Automobiles create a special kind of functional culture region
• Sometimes called machine space
• As usage increases more space must be devoted to them
• Often results in visual blight
 Quaternary industry
• Includes those services mainly required by producers
– Trade, wholesaling, retailing, and advertising
– Banking, legal services, real estate transactions, and insurance
– Consulting and information generation
• Such activities represent one of the major growth sectors in postindustrial
economies
• Manufacturing is increasingly shunted to the peripheries
• Corporate headquarters, markets, and producer-related service activities
remain in the core
• Multiplier leakage — global corporations invest in secondary industry in
the peripheries, but profits flow back to the core (rural –urban)
• The industrialization of less developed countries actually increases the
power of the world’s established industrial nations
• We face a world in which the basic industrial power of the planet is more
centralized than ever
• Global corporations are headquartered mainly in quaternary areas where
 Quaternary industry
• Postindustrial society is organized around knowledge and innovation used
to acquire profits and exert social control
• Impact of computers is changing world dramatically, with implication for
spatial organization of all human activities
• Many quaternary industries depend on a highly skilled, intelligent,
creative, and imaginative labor force
• One of the most rapidly expanding activities is tourism
• Importance trend has continued in spite of tourist attacks
• Importance varies greatly from one region and country to another
• Some countries, particularly those in tropical island locations, depend
principally on tourism to support their national economies
• One advantage is that it is disproportionately focused in industrial
peripheries rather than the core
– Disproportionately focused in industrial peripheries than the core
– Somewhat alleviates problem of uneven development
Factors that influence the location of an industry
• Capital: both financial and fixed capital are necessary when deciding on the location of an industry
• Fixed capital is vitally important as a factor influencing the location of an industry.
• The cost of fixed capital varies spatially and it reflects the spatial variation in industrial land costs
and partly the variation in demand for industrial premises
• Financial capital is essential for the commencement of any enterprise.
• The availability of financial capital is very critical I terms of locational decision making.
• When the government provides the financial capital it is usually attached to locational conditions
because the government is highly selective in the choice of site and location.
• Land: In its broadest sense, land consists of soil, minerals and climate (natural environment).
• Naturally, environment influence human activities.
• Physical factors have critical value influence and should be evaluated before taking any locational
decision.
• Every kind of industry requires land for its plant location.
• Physical gradient and cost gradient tend to influence industrial location decision as industries need
flat land
• The availability of minerals in a particular location attract processing plant to those areas.
• Some industries are raw materials oriented
• Land is a provider of resources like water and the availability of such resource influence the location
of an industry.
 Factors continue

• Labour: labour varies spatial in quality and quantity

• Labour varies in cost, in its ability and reputation for militancy, if the cost
vary from place to place, it might exert strong locational influence.
• Other industries are labour intensive while others are not, those which are
labour intensive will locate closer to the source of labour.
• If particular place had a bad reputation in the field of labour relations or
unions, industries might be repelled from such areas.
• Market: in modern industries the market has gradually become more
important as a factor that influence the location of an industry.
• The location of potential customer is not evenly distributed, there are
areas with abundant customers and they attract industries.
• Every entrepreneur strive to minimised transportation cost by minimising
the distance to the market
 Factors of location continues

• Transport: the mode of that links the input, through-put and out put is an
important factor.
• Very few forces have been more important in the location of industry than
transport.
• Transport route, be it in land, over the sea or in the air have a strong
impact on industry.
• Transport technology may be producing a global village whereby friction
of distance is being over comed but transport route produces interaction
between places
• Industrial location and technological change in transport are inextricably
linked together
 Theory of industrial location
• Alfred Weber, (1868-1958) a German economists, published Theory of the Location of Industries in 1909. His
theory was the industrial equivalent of the Von Thunen Model.
• Developed in the early 20th Century in southern Germany
• Input factors are not ubiquitous
– physical resources are not found everywhere
– human labor is differentiated by skill & ability
– capital availability varies
– other inputs are also differentiated

Manufacturing plants will locate where costs are the least.

Categories of Costs:
Transportation-the most important cost-usually the best site is where cost to transport raw material and finished
product is the lowest
Labor-high labor costs reduce profit-location where there is a supply of cheap, non-union labor may offset
transportation costs
Agglomeration-when a group of industries cluster for mutual benefit-shared services, facilities, etc.-costs can be
lower
Deglomeration-when excessive agglomeration offsets advantage-Eastern crowded cities
 Two schools of location theory

 Profit-maximizing
 Focus more on distribution costs
 Incorporate effects of rival
behavior on
location
 Applied mainly to personal and
retail services
 Cost-minimizing
 Focus more on transportation
costs of inputs
 Incorporate effects of location
conditions on spatial variations in
cost structures
 Applied mainly to manufacturing
 ASSUMPTIONS

• Isotropic plain or Uniform landscape

• Natural resources are either ubiquitous or localised
• Transport system is uniform
• Single mode of transport and transport cost is direct proportion to
distance and weight
• Labour is at fixed point and demand different wages
• Markets are at fixed point and demand is unlimited
• Perfect competition exists, the price of a particular goods is identical
• Industrialists are economic men, trying to minimize their costs or
maximise profit
• Apart from transport cost, labour cost and agglomeration economies, all
other factors are not considered
 Three main locational factors

• Transport cost
• Labour cost
• Agglomeration economies
 Material index
 Perfect competition(same product, same quality, same price)
 Entrepreneurs are economic rational (minimize cost)
resources (raw materials)
• ubiquitous (everywhere)
• localized (fixed)
• pure (no weight change)
• gross (weight loss)

• Material index= Weight of localized raw materials

Weight of finished product
 Procedures for finding optimum location

• Stage 1 - Least Transport Cost

• Stage 2 - add in Labour Saving
• Stage 3 - add in Agglomeration economies

• Types of industries
• Labour intensive industries – Labour oriented, e.g Textile
• Energy intensive industry – Energy oriented, e.g.
Aluminium
• Footloose industry – unbounded industry, e.g. Micro chip
•
 Situation 1
One market and Single raw material

R R

Total
Distribution transport Assembly
cost cost cost

R.M. distance Market

Pure raw material
 Location triangles
• Weber used a location triangle to illustrate his approach
• Weber uses a triangular structure to elaborate on his theory of
industrial location using least transport cost principle.
• His example being that only 2 source of raw materials are need
for an industry to produce
• Logically a firm will locate within the triangles joining two
points where market is situated
• Each point having a pull on the factory depending on its
transport cost
• Weight loss industry are raw material oriented
• Weight gain industry are market oriented
 Situation 1
One market and Two raw materials P is supposed to be at the
center of a Triangle

Both RM1 and RM2 are Market

localized and pure
P is missing but should be at
the centre

10
km

0k
0

m
10

100 km
RM1 RM2
 Triangle continues
• The two corners of the triangle defined by the base
line represent the places where raw materials are
found (R1 and R2)
• The market (M) is at the apex of the triangle.
• M is the market and P is the industrial location.
• If the industry is located at the raw material source
R1, then raw material R2 must be transported to
industrial location R1 and the finished products
must be transported to the market M.
Triangle 1: Constant material

Triangle 2: Weight Loosing Materials

S2
S1

Triangle 2: Weight Loosing

Materials

P
What is wrong with Weberian industrial
location theory?

• Single point markets

• Geographic variation in demand
• Over emphasis on transport
• Terminal costs ignored
• Labour is mobile yet localized
• Vast number of component inputs for most
manufacturing
• Single plant independent firms is unrealistic
 Critique of Weber
• Conception of market demand limited
• Transport costs not defined realistically
• Labor is typically mobile, not fixed in space
• Many manufacturing plants produce
complex sets of products with complex sets
of inputs
• Treatment of agglomeration is rigid
• Lösch: Location based on maximum profit,
not minimum cost
 Webber’s Uncertainty Effect

• In reality, we do not have perfect

knowledge about markets and factor costs
• Uncertainty deters (large) investments
• Uncertainty enhances the importance of
external economies - new entrants get the
benefits caused by existing sellers
• Ex ante versus ex post evaluations, leading
to satisficing behavior
 Central place theory
•Central place theory is a geographical theory that seeks to explain the number,
size and location of human settlements in an urban system.
•The theory was created by the German geographer Walter Christaller, who
asserted that settlements simply functioned as 'central places' providing
services to surrounding areas.
• Geographically deals with locational element concerned with the size and distribution of
central places (settlements) within a system.
• Central-place theory attempts to illustrate how settlements locate in relation to one
another, the amount of market area a central place can control, and why some central
places function as hamlets, villages, towns, or cities.
• Central place theory is a spatial theory in urban geography that attempts to explain the
reasons behind the distribution patterns, size, and number of cities and towns around
the world.
• It also attempts to provide a framework by which those areas can be studied both for
historic reasons and for the locational patterns of areas today
 Christaller’s concept of central place
• The German geographer Walter Christaller introduced central-place theory in his book
entitled Central Places in Southern Germany (1933).
• A central place is a settlement that provides goods and services
• The primary purpose of a centre is to provide goods and services for the surrounding market
area.
• The main aim of central place theory is to explain the spatial organization of
settlements and hinterlands, in particular their relative location and size
• Centres should be centrally located and may be called Central Places.
• Settlements that provide more goods and services than others places are called higher-order
central places.
• Lower-order central places have small market areas and provide goods and services that are
purchased more frequently than higher-order goods and services.
• Higher-order places are more widely distributed and fewer in number than lower-order
places
• The central place exists primarily to provide goods and services to its surrounding population
 Assumptions
• There is order in the patterns, distributions and functions of
settlements
• Isotropic landscape
• Evenly distributed population
• Equally distributed resources
• Goods and services were obtained from the nearest central
place to minimize distance travelled
• All customers had the same income and made similar demands
for goods
• No excess profit would be made by one central place and each
would locate as far as possible from the rivals to maximise profit
 HIERACHY OF CENTERS

• Central place is a market center for the exchange of goods

and services by people from the hinterland
• Hinterland refers to the area surrounding a central place from
which consumers are drawn
• Centrality is crucial to the development of urban places and
their service areas.
• The urban hierarchy of settlements is based on the functions
available in a given settlement.
• Functions and services attract people from the urban areas as
well as the hinterlands.
• Every urban center has an economic reach.
No. of
Services Conurbation
Provided Cities High order

Large town Middle

order Small Town

Village Village
Low order
Hamlet

Settlement population size

 Range and threshold of goods
• A range is the longest distance that people are prepared to travel in
order to acquire goods or Range could be defined as the maximum
distance people are willing to travel to use a service.
• Threshold is the minimum number of people or customers that is
required for the sustainable existence of a centre or a business or
Threshold is the minimum number of people required to support the
service
• Low order goods have a low range and low threshold.
• Less number of people needed to support low order goods
• The smaller the distance people are willing to travel.
• Low range and threshold goods are sold in small towns, villages etc.
• Higher ranges and threshold are sold in large towns.
Market areas: Circle or square?

62
Market areas: Hexagon?

63
Three principles of central place theory

• The marketing principle (K=3 system)

• The transportation principle (K=4 system)
• The administrative principle (K=7 system
Central Place Theory

K=3
K=7
Marketing Administration
principle principle

K=4
Transport
principle

65
 Marketing principle
• According to the marketing principle K = 3,
• The market area of a higher-order place(node) occupies
1/3rd of the market area of each of the consecutive lower
size place(node) which lies on its neighbour.
• The lower size nodes (6 in numbers and 2nd larger circles)
are located at the corner of a largest hexagon around the
high-order settlement.
• Each high-order settlement gets 1/3rd of each satellite
settlement (which are 6 in total)
• However, although in this K = 3 marketing network, the
distance travelled is minimized.
 Marketing principle continues
• Christaller pointed out that the marketing
principle is an awkward arrangement in terms
of connecting different levels of the hierarchy.
• As an alternate arrangement, Christaller
suggested that central places could be
organized according to what he called the
transport principle
 Transport principle
• The transport principles states that the distribution of central
places is most favourable when as many important places as
possible lie on one traffic route between two important towns, the
route being established as straight and as cheap as possible.
• The more unimportant places may be left aside.
• the central places would thus be lined up on straight traffic routes
which fan out from the central point.
• The lower order centres are located at the midpoint of each side of
the hexagon rather than at the corner.
• Thus the transport principle produces a hierarchy organized in a
k=4 arrangement in which central places are nested according to
the rule of four.
 The administrative principle
• Lower order centre are to be entirely within
the hexagon
• All six lower order centre are subordinate to
the bigger centre
 Applicability of the theory
Christaller’s theory though hypothetical, theoretical and unrealistic, is still
valuable as it illustrates the notion that urban networks are orderly systems
and not just random arrangements
The theory has stimulated work on retailing and consumer behaviour
between settlements ,and within them, which is useful for town planning and
economic development
• The theory does a reasonably good job of describing spatial patterns
• No other theory propagated why there is a hierarchy of centres before the CPT
• CPT does a good job of describing the location of trade and service activities
• Its description of consumer market oriented manufacturing cannot be
challenged logically even in today’s world
• It is only on the basis of CPT that small town developers can secure specific
information about workable relation or corporations between enterprises and
retailers
 Applicability continues
• The use of both threshold and range of goods
by retailers when deciding to locate their
enterprises still cannot be argued any other
way except Christaller’s rational.
• Transportation cost continues to play a
significant role in allocation of central places
• The distribution patterns of centers follow the
basic principles of central place theory.
 Limitations of the theory
• Large areas of flat land rarely exist
• There are different forms of transportation which the
theory seemed to have not considered when talking
about equal access to transport
• People and their wealth are not evenly distributed,
hence their purchasing power differs
• Perfect competition is unreal- because some make
more money than others
• The theory does not consider impact of time change
and the role of technology
 Criticisms of Christaller’s central place theory

• Isotropic surfaces
• Modern technology
• Population
• Non-service centre
• Overlapping market areas
• Multi-purpose shopping
• Mobility of people
• Influence of government and planning agencies
• Statics theory
• Applicability
• Spacing of settlements
 Concluding assessment
• In 1954, German economist August LÖsch modified
Christaller’s CPT because he believed it was too rigid
• The theory was also modified for the fact that it led to
patterns where the distribution of goods and the
accumulation of profits were based entirely on location
• Models and theories are not real, but they help us to
understand reality
• As academics or scholars we should not try to fit reality
into the model, rather fit the model into reality.
 Class activity #2: 27/04/2021
1. Define the following concepts:
(i) Spatial system (ii) Spatial competition (iii) Ideal spatial organization
(iv) Assumption (v) Economic rent (vi) Perishable goods
(vii) Tutalage [14]
2. Give five assumptions for Agricultural location theory [5]
3. Explain why timber is positioned closer to the market centre within the Agricultural location theory? [2]
4. Why did Christaller postulated a hexagonal shaped centre? [3]
5. Draw a labeled diagram for an economic rent [5]
5. Give five geographic factors that influence the location of an industry [10]
6. Give two other names for industrial location theory [4]
7. Give three senses of place making [6]
8. List four typologies of relationships in place making [8]
9. List three principles of Central Place theory [6]
10. List three stages for society development [6]
11. Draw a labeled diagram showing a range and a threshold [5]
12. Draw a labeled diagram showing the location of an industry where raw materials used are constant [5]
13. List six types of decisions[12]
14. Give five barriers to ideal spatial organization [10]
 
 
 Spatial Interaction

• Used by geographers as • Four basic concepts:

shorthand for all kinds of
– Complementarity
movement and flows involving
human activity. – Transferability
• the movement of peoples, ideas, – Intervening opportunities
and commodities within and – diffusion
between areas
• common characteristics of spatial
behavior that affect and unify all
people and social systems
• “ground rules” of spatial
interaction physical and
behavioral constraints
 Complementarity
• For spatial interaction to occur • Complementarity can be the
between two places there must be result of several factors
demand in one place and a supply
– Variation in physical
that matches, or compliments it, in
environments and resource
the other. endowments from place to place
• A residential zone is complementary – Internal division of labor that
to an industrial zone because the derives from the evolution of the
first is supplying workers while the world’s economic systems
second is supplying jobs. – Specialization and economies of
• for two places to interact one must
scale
have a supply of an item for which
there is an effective demand in the
other
• by desire to purchase
• purchasing power
• means to transport it
 Transferability
• Spatial interaction can only occur • Transferability varies over time
when there are acceptable costs of – Successive innovations in transportation
an exchange: time & cost and communications
• Characteristics & value of product – Waves of infrastructure development
• Distance measured in time & penalties • Freight, persons or information being
transferred must be supported by transport
• Commodity must be able to bear the
infrastructures, implying that the origin and
costs of movement the destination must be linked. Costs to
overcome distance must not be higher than
the benefits of related interaction, even if
there is complementarity and no alternative
• Function of two things: opportunity.
– Costs of moving a particular item, measured in
real money and/or time
– the ability of the item to bear these costs. • Time-space convergence
• High transferability rate
– Computer microchips
– The rate at which places move closer together
» Easy to handle in travel or communication costs
» Transport costs are minimal in proportion to their
value
– Results from a decrease in the friction of
• Low transferability rate distance as space-adjusting technologies have
– Computer monitors brought places closer together over time
» Fragile • Global and local
» Lower value by weight and volume
• Shrinking of space has important implications
 Intervening Opportunity
• Refers to a location that may
offer a better alternative as a
point of origin or as a point of
destination. For instance, in
order to have an interaction of a
customer to a store, there must
not be a closer store that offers
a similar array of goods.
• More important in determining
volume and pattern of
movements and flows
• Size and relative importance are
important aspects
• PRINCIPLE OF INTERVENING
OPPORTUNITY:
– Spatial interaction between an
origin and a destination will be
proportional to the number of
opportunities at that destination
an inversely proportional to the
number of opportunities at
alternative destinations
– Serves to reduce supply/demand
interactions that otherwise might
develop between distant
complementary areas
 Measuring interaction
• General principles/patterns
– Friction of distance
• Distance has retarding effect/ time & cost
penalties
– Distance decay
• Near destinations have disproportionate pull over
more distant locations
• Varies with activity
– Linear distance
• Only one aspect of transferability
 Gravity Model
• Observations based on Newton’s law
of universal gravitation:
– 1. Interaction between urban centers
can be calculated by size & distance
– 2. Large cities have greater drawing
power for individuals than do small ones
 leading to Reilly’s law
• Breaking Point:
– Two cities will attract trade from
intermediate locales in direct proportion
to their size and distance
 Human spatial behavior
• Mobility describes all types of human
territorial movement
• 2 types:
– 1. Circulation
• a) daily or temporal
• b) longer periods, such as vacations
– 2. Migration
• Permanent move, relocation
Circulation
 Individual areas of activity
1. Territoriality
– Emotional attachment to, and the defense of home
ground
2. Personal space
– The zone of privacy/separation from other our culture or
our physical circumstances require or permit
 Activity space
• Extended home range
• Variables:
– Stage of life
– Mobility
– Opportunities
 DIFFUSION
• The notion of spatial diffusion covers all processes
that contribute to moves, to migration inside
geographical space, and to backlash effects
generated in this space by those moves
• Process in which phenomenon (disease, trends,
technology, etc.) spread from one place to another
over time
– Hearth: place of origination
– Diffusion happens quickly today because of modern
technology, communication, transportation
 Spatial Diffusion
• The way things spread through space and over time

• One of the most important aspects of spatial interaction

• Crucial to understanding geographic change

• Diffusion occurs as a function of geographic statistical probability

• Diffusion may be linked with a migration move accompanied by re-location or
to an expansion move
• The notion of diffusion is often associated with that of innovation.
 Types of Diffusion
• Relocation Diffusion
– The spread of an idea through physical movement of people from one place to another
• Languages
• Money systems
• Aids

• Movement of people and things

• Europeans moved to the Americas and brought their culture with them
• Air masses move across the surface acquiring the characteristics of those surfaces
• An advancing low pressure system brings with it conditions to spawn tornadoes

• Expansion diffusion
– “snowballing process”
– develops from the core- remains strong and spreads
• Example: an agricultural innovation among members of local farming community
• Example: Islam
– Three types of Expansion diffusion
• Hierarchical
• Contagious
• Stimulus
 Types of Expansion Diffusion
• Hierarchical: idea spread from
persons or nodes of authority or
power
− Also called cascade diffusion
− A phenomenon can be diffused from one
location to another without necessarily
spreading to people or places in
between.
– Example: a fashion trend from large metro area
to smaller cities, towns, and rural settlements
– Example: Rap music – came from West Africa,
adopted on East Coast, morphed in Philly into
Hip-Hop, spread into urban areas and then
dispersed.
• Contagious: rapid, widespread
diffusion throughout population
− Like a disease- Cholera
− Example: hula-hoop, spread quickly in
1950’s, literally contagious (hearth:
Cali)
• Stimulus: spread of underlying
principle, even though
characteristic itself failed to diffuse
− Indirectly promote changes,
ideas, innovation
– Example: Europeans grew wheat, went to
America, no wheat but corn, started
growing corn like wheat.
– the adoption leads to something new.
 Diffusion of Culture and Economy

• In global culture and economy, • Three core hearth regions:

transportation and communications – North America
systems rapidly diffuse raw • New York
materials, goods, services, and – Western Europe
capital from nodes of origin to other • London
regions. – Japan
• Tokyo
• Globalization is essentially a process
• Africa, Asia, Latin America
of diffusion, note the labels in your
– 3/4ths world population, almost all
household:
population growth
- Korea - computer – On “periphery”
- Japan - stereo – Gap in regions called “uneven
- Germany - car development”
- Brazil - shoes
- India - shirts and blouses
 Hägerstrand(1952) introduces the concept of spatial
temporal and spatial regularities

• There are four stages in spatial temporality of

diffusion.
– The primary step of the process corresponds to the beginning of
diffusion: At this stage, diffusion introduces a new differentiation inside
geographical space
– The expansion step is the period of actual development of the process,
which generates a gradual softening of the strongest contrasts between
places.
– The condensation step, the rate of penetration into the different places
tends to become more homogeneous, while speeds of diffusion in the
various places grow closer.
– The saturation step, the penetration rate increases toward a maximum
following an asymptotic curve
 Migration
• Unmistakable, recurring, near-
universal theme
• Complementarity, transferability,
intervening opportunity, barriers, all
play a role
• Often occurs in a series of steps, or
chain, like links
 Rural to urban migration
• Due to Industrial Revolution
• 18th to 19th centuries in U.S. & Europe
people moved from country side to urban
areas
• 20th centuries, worldwide phenomenon
accelerated
• Today more prevalent than
international moves especially in
developing countries
• More difficult to move internationally
 Decision factors
• Cultural, socio/economic
• Distance
• Responses to poverty, population
growth, environmental deterioration,
war, famine
• Micro – macro moves
 Distance of migration
• Intercontinental
• Involve movements between
countries or counties
• Intracontinental
• International
• Interregional
 Types of migration
• 1. Forced migration
– Historic & recent, 10-12 million West
Africans
• Caribbean, Central, South, & North America
– British convicts to Australia
 Types of migration
• 3. Voluntary migration - largest
– Push of:
• Poverty, overcrowding, war, famine,
environmental degradation, loss of job
– Pull of:
• Perceived economic opportunity, safety,
food, better climate, cleaner/safer
environment, family
 Additional effects
• 1. “Brain drain”
• 2. Guest workers
• 3. Time - contract
 Urbanization process
• Urbanization is a multi-dimensional process that can be defined from
different perspectives. It is a spatial process.
• Urbanization refers the process which increases the proportion of
people in living in cities.
• Urbanisation is the process in which the number of people living in cities
increases compared with the number of people living in rural areas. A country is
considered to be urbanised when over 50% of its population lives in urban places
• It also refers to the process in which rural populations move to urban
areas.
• It is the increase in the percentage of a population living in settlements
which could be classified as urban areas
• Urbanization refers to a combination of urban components within a
country that form an urban system.
• Urbanization is the growth of cities, brought about by a population
shift from rural areas and small communities to large ones, and
change from a largely agricultural economy to an industrial one
 Urbanization and associated processes
• Inextricably linked to industrialization and modernization.
• Urbanization and growth go together
• Managing urbanization is an important part of nurturing the
growth of cities
• Urbanization is an ingredient for demographic transition
• Urbanization cannot be separated from development
• Agglomeration and dichotomizing of regional or national
economy
• Technological advancement
• Urban sprawl
• Gentrification
 Causes of Urbanization
• The process of urbanisation is influenced by:

– Natural population increase (births – deaths)

– Migration from rural areas (especially in countries with
large rural populations)
– Immigration from other countries (especially in
developed countries)
– Reclassification of urban boundaries to encompass
formerly rural areas
– Industrialization: historically, urbanization has been
closely connected with industrialization
CAUSES OF URBANIZATION CONTINUES
 Reduce expense in commuting and transportation
 Improving opportunities for jobs, education, housing, and
transportation.
 Greater variety of jobs
 To seek economic opportunities
 Better basic services as well as other specialist services that
aren't found in rural areas
 Rich elderly are often forced to move to cities where there are
doctors and hospitals that can cater for their health needs
 Variety of entertainment (restaurants, movie theatres, theme
parks, etc)
 The effects of Urbanization process
Positive effect/advantages
– Economic development
– Innovation
– Education
– Technological advances
– Jobs
– Industry, commerce,
transportation
– Longer lives
– Lower infant mortality
– Better medical care
– Better social services
– More recycling programs
Negative effects/ disadvantages
• Huge ecological footprints
(contribute to land degradation)
• Deforestation/ Loss of
vegetation/erosion
• Pollution of all kinds: Air, Land,
Water and Noise
• Health problems
• All kinds of crime
• Housing problems
• Traffic congestion
• Squatter settlements/shantytowns
• Terrible living conditions
 Urbanization and its effects
 Lack of housing and open areas of land
 Lack of safe and efficient transportation
 Crime
 Urban heat
 respiratory problems among human
 Fire hazards
 Loss of land for agriculture
 Loss of biodiversity
 Aid in global warming
 Abnormal births
 Globalisation
Multi dimensional concept:
Globalisation has many definitions, but generally it refers
to various global interconnections

• Economic
• Social
• Cultural
It is therefore a phenomenon that embraces all aspects of
human life
The movement towards the expansion of economic and social ties
between countries through the spread of corporate institutions and the
capitalist philosophy that leads to the shrinking
of the world in economic terms
 Definitions of globalization
• Is a name given to different changes that are taking place all over the
world. Its foundation is exchange through interaction
• Globalization is a system of interaction among countries of the world I
terms of economic, technological, political and cultural exchanges.
• It refers to the integration of economies and societies all over the world
• One of the most fashionable buzzwords of contemporary political and
academic debate that involves technology
• It is used a synonym for one or more of the following phenomena
– Free markets, international exchange and interdependence
– Economic liberalization-removal of gov. imposed restrictions
– Westernisation or modernisation -growing dominance of western
(or Euro American) forms of political, economic and cultural life
(Westernization or Americanization)
– Deterritorialisation- global integration
– The proliferation of new information technologies (internet
revolution)
 CAUSES OF GLOBALIZATION
• Improvement in transportation technologies
• Improvement in communication technologies
• Rise of transnational corporations
• Improved standards of living
• Global economic integration
• Improved global political collaboration
• Religious and cultural collaboration
 Types of globalization
• Information globalization- information is being shared through
internet, emails, social medias and etc. The sharing of
information connect people around the globe.
• Corporate globalization- multinational companies operate
across linked continents and economies of the world
• Economic globalization- free trades and exchange made
possible through globalization.
• Cultural globalization – modification of cultures to fit into global
practices.
• Environmental globalization- world environmental entities
operating in different countries of the world.
• Media globalization big media companies controlling or
monopolizing global media (e.g. tv, news papers & magazines)
• Political globalization – the politics of one country having
influence in other countries politics
 Economic Cultural
Development Enrichment

Information
International Technology
Investments Globalization and the
and Trade Internet

Property
Democracy
Rights
These are Opportunities
 Corruption
Terrorism Poverty

Epidemics
AIDS Energy
Malaria Globalization Issues
Avian Flu

Global Ocean and

Warming Water Issues
Human Rights

These are
Challenges
 Effects of Globalization
Industrial: Emergence of worldwide production markets and broader access to a range of foreign
products for consumers and companies

Financial: Emergence of worldwide financial markets and better access to external financing for
borrowers

Economic: Pursuit of free market policies—economic liberalization—free movement of goods and capital

Political: Some mean globalization as the creation of world government (organizations)—UN which
regulate the relationship between government

Informational: Increase the information flow between geographically remote locations (Internet
Revolution)
Improvement of international trade: because of globalisation, the number of countries where products can
be sold or purchased has increased drastically

Technological progress: because of the need to compete and to be competitive globally, governments
have upgraded their levels of technology.

Multinational companies: companies having subsidiaries in various countries increases their global
influence because of globalisation system. It strengthens the powers and the influence of
international institutions like WTO, IMF AND WB.

Mobiliity: globalisation allows countries to source their manpower in counties with cheap labour .
Meaning globalisation stimulates greater mobility of human resources across countries.
 Thank you
• Good luck with your exams!!!
 Effects of Globalization (cont.)
Cultural: Growth of cross-cultural contacts—participate in a “world culture” reducing cultural diversity
Standardize consumer habits, values and way of thinking

Ecological: The hope for a collective approach to deal with the environmental issues

Social: The greater international travel and tourism

Greater Immigration (uncontrolled)
Promote understanding and peace between peoples

Technical: Development of a global telecommunications infrastructure and greater trans-border data

flow

Legal/Ethical: Develop world trade agreement which include copyright laws and patents