CONCEPTS OF SPACE, UNDERSTANDING IN HUMAN-GEOGRAPHY, AND SPATIAL-ANALYSIS

Spatial analysis was important in the rejuvenation of the spatial trad ition. Its intellectual possibilities, however, now seem to be exhaust ed. Spatial analysis never dealt with more than a subset of the spatia l. Concepts of territory, place, locality, spatial division of labor, etc., proved elusive. Crucial and related shortcomings included the se paration of spatial and social relations, the separation of fact from value, and empiricist tendencies. Accordingly the exploitation of the hitherto unaddressed spatial agenda has had to be taken up by those wi th different assumptions about the nature of the world and how it is b est studied. These approaches in turn shed new light on those spatial relations, like scale, that spatial analysis did try to address. They are also well-equipped to clarify the historical geography of spatial analysis as an intellectual movement.