Abstract:
In technical disciplines, the concept of absolute space is often used, while in human geography relative space is more widespread. While space is considered “a container for elements of the earth’s surface” (Meentemeyer 1989) place has a more complex meaning, summarized as “Locational analysis is based on the relationship between places.” (Jones 1984a) Since measurements are human-influenced (Krishna et al. 2010) and variable (Hrouda et Pokorný 2012, Topakci et al. 2010) there can be no such thing as absolute space, and only place. This does make gradations in relativity of space viable though, which is an interesting subject for further analysis.
Full Text:
Across different science disciplines, there is a widely varying sense of the meaning and significance of absolute and relative space, which will be called ‘space’ (absolute) and ‘place’ (relative) for the remainder of this paper. The meaning of space often manifests itself in technical disciplines as demonstrated by, among others, Meentemeyer, who advocates the concept of space for physical geography. Space is classified as “a container for elements of the earth’s surface”. The concept of ‘place’, coined as ‘Relative Space’, “is defined by the spatial processes, e.g., migration and commuting patterns, watersheds, dispersion of pollutants, and even the diffusion of ideas and information.” (Meentemeyer 1989) This rather diverse concept of place is supported by human geographers, such as Jones, who ties space to absolute location values but to the contrary of physical geographers calls for the usage of place. “Locational analysis is based on the relationship between places, not on the absolute attributes of places.” (Jones 1984a) In another case study, Jones presents place as a concept which complements the positivist space for qualitative purposes, whereas space could be more useful for quantitative modeling. (Jones 1984b) This implies that in order to understand and analyze a subject to its full extent, the concept of place is needed. Especially in phenomenology, there is a sense that there is no such thing as space, but only place, as expressed by geographers as Heidegger which once again draws on phenomenologists such as Relph. (Wollan 2003 )
Does the concept of space actually exist in reality? Although it is a usable concept in modeling, it remains to be seen if space does indeed exist.
Since space is tied to absolute measurements, such as longitude and latitude, temperature and volume, one could advocate these things are not variable. But is that actually the case? Krishna et al. reveals that there are various ways in which quantitative measurements are influenced by human interpretation and bias. Along with systematical bias, which means there are reproduced errors in research which effect the end outcome, there are random biases such as sampling variability and measurement imprecision. While these can be minimized, they cannot be avoided. (Krishna et al. 2010) This inevitably means that quantitative research cannot be without human bias. Applying this to the geographical context, it means that even when absolute data is collected for a location, there will be some form of interpretation of the data by the person involved which makes it place, even if it’s in a very marginal form.
Apart from that, it would be theoretically impossible to determine the absolute value of a certain space. Our measurement practices ultimately lack the precision to catch the essence of a space, which is demonstrated by the research in measurement precision in various disciplines, such as physics (Hrouda et Pokorný 2012) but also in physical geography (Topakci et al. 2010) This means that, although we may have the precision to support quantitative research, the data is always variable. There is an inevitable selection and processing of data to make it workable, which implies a human interpretation to how data should be handled, which in turn does not make it absolute. Purely theoretical, it is in fact possible that there is absolute space. However, since it is seemingly not attainable for humankind, we should qualify data as qualitative, which would in a geographical context mean space is always place, and absolute space does not exist for humankind.
That does mean that there is the possibility to make gradations in how relative the space actually is. When a place is described as a set of quantitative measurements that is perceived as the same by a large group of people, that could be considered as a location that is near-space. On the other hand, if a location is described by very specific interpretations of a single person, that would be considered a very pure form of place. Thus, we could define the gradation of relativity of a location as the specificity of its description. By this definition, a place would have multiple meanings depending on the demographic target. A village may hold a special meaning for an individual, which makes it a very relative place, but that does not discredit its near-absolute aspects for a group of scientists. Further examination of the concept of gradation of spatial relativity could provide valuable insights in the importance of locations to specific demographics.
References:
Meentemeyer, V. (1989). Geographical perspectives of space, time, and scale. Landscape Ecology, 3(3-4), 163-173.
Jones, E. (1984a). On the specific nature of space. Geoforum, 15-1, 5-9.
Jones, E. (1984b). Post-positivist social geography. GeoJournal, 9-3, 241-245.
Wollan, G. (2003 ). Heidegger’s philosophy of space and place. Norsk Geografisk tidsskrift, 57-1, 31-39.
Krishna, R., Maithreyi, R., Surapaneni, K.M. (2010). Research bias: A review for medical students. Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research, 4-2, 2320-2324.
Hrouda, F., Pokorný, J. (2012). Modelling accuracy limits for frequency-dependent anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility of rocks and soils. Studia Geophysica et Geodaetica, 1-14.
Topakci, M., Unal, I., Canakci, M., Yigit, M., Karayel, D. (2010). Improvement of field efficiency measurement system based on GPS for precision agriculture applications. Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment, 8 (3-4 Part 1), 288-292.
