Interaction

Articles

• Territory
  24 November 2013, by B. E.

  A territory is a portion of terrestrial space envisaged in its relationships with the human groups that occupy it and manage it for the purpose of meeting their needs. This notion is, in geography, neither a synonym nor a substitute for the word space. While there is of course a notion of space in territory, it is not viewed as a neutral and isotropic backdrop. Numerous components (which can be environmental, social economic actors, institutional, etc.) impart specificity and identity to (...)

• Spatiality
  6 August 2004, by D. P.

  Spatiality combines all conditions and practices of individual and social life that are linked to relative position of individuals and groups with regard to one another. One fundamental postulate of geography is that those relative positions (or geographical situations) determine, probably or partly, form and intensity of social interactions. These in turn build back, while distorting them in an incremental way, the main structures of geographical space. Spatiality is one of the two main (...)

• Theories of spatial analysis
  12 January 2005, by D. P.

  The general theoretical position of spatial analysis consists in proposing a partial explanation as well as prediction possibilities about the state and probable evolution of geographical objects / entities, on basis of knowledge of their situation with respect to other geographical objects.
  There exists not yet any general theory of geographical space that could be a theory of concentrations, of spacing, of spatial structures and of evolution of spatial systems, relying on knowledge of (...)

• Isotropy/anisotropy
  8 September 2010, by Th. St.-J.

  An environment or medium is said to be isotropic if its physical properties are identical in all directions. A «system» will be termed isotropic if its (macroscopic) properties are invariant in relation to a particular direction, and therefore none of these properties is directionally dependent. Should one of its properties be directional, the system is not isotropic, but anisotropic. A physical magnitude can also be said to be anisotropic or isotropic according to whether or not it is (...)

• Contingency
  18 October 2005, by F.D.-D.

  A philosophical notion that seems particularly useful for geographical reasoning. Lalande goes back to Aristotle for the general meaning of the term: "Est contingent tout ce qui est conçu comme pouvant être ou ne pas être à quelque égard et sous quelque réserve que ce soit [. . .] ( Si bien qu’) un événement futur est contingent si, toutes choses étant ce qu’elles sont, ce futur peut se produire ou ne pas se produire"1 . (The term is opposed in all its meanings to (...)

• Gravity model
  6 October 2004, by D. P.

  The gravity model is aimed at formalising, studying and predicting geography of flows or interactions. The distribution of interactions in a set of places depends on their configuration, i.e. the force of attraction of each one and the difficulty of communication between them. The model has first been formulated in analogy with Newton’s law of universal gravitation: two objects attract each other in direct proportion of their masses and in inverse proportion of the distance separating (...)

• Epistemological bases
  31 August 2004, by D. P.

  Spatial analysis refers to one of the main uses of the term « space », common to geographers, to specialists of spatial economy or of regional science. Space is here a relative space, produced, defined by relations between places that develop because of interactions between localised social actors. This concept is distinct from the more encompassing concepts environment and territory or region. Space as making part of the explanatory project of spatial analysis is not assimilated with the (...)

• Centre/Periphery
  13 October 2004, by C.G.

  The geometrical metaphor of centre and periphery is often used to describe opposition between the two basic types of places in a spatial system : the one which is commanding and benefitting it, the centre, and those which are subjected to it, in a peripheral position. This conceptual pair goes back at least to the time of Werner Sombart (Der moderne Kapitalismus, 1902), if not of Marx (city/countryside relations), and was used by the imperialism theoreticians (Rosa Luxemburg, Boukharine) (...)

• Spatial system
  12 January 2005, by F.D.-D., L. S.

  A system is a set of sets : set of elements linked with each other through relations which form a set of interactions ; presence of positive and/or negative retro-action loops is an indispensable element of a system definition. Defined in this way, a system forms a totality, whose limits may be defined. Most systems in which human sciences are interested are open; they maintain relations with a part of the outside world which constitutes their environment. Inputs in the system condition its (...)

• System
  6 August 2004, by D. P.

  A system is an autonomous entity with regard to its environment, organised in a stable structure (identifiable in the course of time), constituted by interdependent elements, whose interactions contribute in maintaining the system structure and making it evolve.
  The main epistemological contributions to the notion of system are : a circular conception of causality (retro-action loops), a breaking up of reality into organisation levels endowed with autonomy but interdependent, attention (...)

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