Using real world examples, list and explain the three components of Spatial Inte

Question

Using real world examples, list and explain the three components of Spatial Interaction and why they are important to the study of Economic Geography.

Why is scale more than simply the physical space in which social processes happen?

Is it possible to understand economic processes without also understanding other dimensions of human society and the natural environment? What role does geography play in the understanding?

Explain how, and why, the meaning of “the economy” has changed over time.

Using examples explain the spatial significance of agglomeration and functional areal specialization. Does one lead to the other? Why or why not?

Explanation / Answer

First we need to understand what is a spatial interaction in Econmic geography: It is a concept that refers to movement of human beings, goods and services from one place to another (intra or intercity, intra or inter state, intra or inter country or intra and intercontinent).

According to Edward Ullman there are three principal components of this Spatial interaction. they are complementarity, transferability, and intervening opportunity.

Let us focus on each of these:

complementarity: movent happens becuase there is more demand in a particular location than their original location and it also offers better treatment. Hence both workers, goods move from one place to another. Example, Log of woods from one state to another which has prosperous sports accessory making industry. People from India to USA becuase USA has opprtunities that Indians can exploit.

In short Complementarity is a surplus-deficit relationship.

transferability: It refers to the cost of overcoming distance in terms of money or travel time. This cost is also called 'Friction of distance'. If this friction of distance is higher spatial interaction will not happen even if surplus-deficit opprtunities are there. This also shows why high value lightweight goods travel easily. Friction of distance has decreased due to advancement in technology in modern world.

Intervening opportunity: It is considered as a reason for lack of spatial interaction or why goods and peoplw will not move. If better industry is available within the state for log of woods then it will not move to another state. Similarly if people find better alternative in their own location they will also not move. Hence this can be considered as limiting factor to Spatil interaction.

Importance in the study of Economic Geography:

1. These componentes explain reasons and patterns of movement.

2, This knowledge will help to create better opportunities in the local places only to avoid brain-drain or movement of resources.

3. This also helps in undestanding geo-politics as concentration of industries in a locality and also emergence of superpowrs can be explained with these components.

2.Scale more than physical space :

First we need to understand that the focus on scale enables students of geography to analyze the effect of global changes on local events and the impact of local events on global changes. Example: Polar ice caps melting in Arctic area: Arctic may be a very small physical space as comapred to an area of earth but rate and scale at which ice caps are melting is alarming and needs immediate effects.

Similarly, war like situations in middle east may strain resiurces in Europe a migramts from this area prefer to go to safe places. Hence area may be small but scale of migration needs attention.

3. Is it impossible to understand economic processes without also understanding other dimensions of human society and the natural environment: Let us take the example of higher population in Asia, we say that populationn is very high in this area and standard of living so low. We need to understand that population increase at tremendous rate has reasons like impact of religion, poverty, lack of basic infrastructure, lack of education. This is also supported by the climate of this area which supports fertility. Hence to understand population problem in Asia it is necessary to study all dimensions of human society along with natural/geographical factors.

4. Changing meaning of economy over time: Earlier till 18th century economy was considers as a part of politics. After Adam Smith it started to get more respect as a discipline. In 20th and 21st century the scope of economy is not only limited to money and finance but has entered in global politics, geography and also in natural sciences.

Example- Increase in oil prices is not only becuase of demand and supply mismatch as stated by Economists but also due to political animosity between US and Iran and emergence of many global alliances in the world. Therefore no branch of social studies can work in isolation.

5. Agglomeration is concentration of a businesses in a particular location as it helps to reduce costs, increase efficiency and proper allocation of resources. It is true that functional area specilization and agglomeration are complementary to each other. Example- Automobile industry concentrating in Detrot. In India- Sports accessories making concentrating in Punjab. Similarly many areas in the world enjoy agglomeration ad increasing functional area specilization.

What role does geography play in the understanding?

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