Chapter 3

Spatial Interaction and Spatial Behavior

The Movement of people, ideas, and commodities within and between areas

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Questions• Factors influence human’s decision on

interacting with space

• How does distance affect the decisions?

• Space activities and exchange of commodities

• Migration decisions

Bases for Interaction

• Unevenly distributed resources in the world – make commodities flow

• Summarizing Model – proposed by Edward Ullman: 3 factors controlling the space interactions:– Complementarity: two place to interact, one must

have what another wants and can secure.

– Transferability: mobility of a commodity

– Intervening opportunities

Complementarity

• Supply of items in one place and effective demand from the other with purchasing power

• Effective supply and demand are important considerations – fig 3.2 and exchange of raw materials and industrial commodities between less developed and developed countries.

Transferability

• Consideration of time and cost, once the complementarity exists.

• An expression of the mobility of a commodity and a function of three interrelated conditions a) characteristics and values of the products b) the distance, measured in time and money and c) the ability of the commodity to bear the cost of movement.

• Mobility is not just a physical but an economic matter.• Transferability is not a constant condition.

Highway, seaway opening, transportation means change.

Intervening Opportunity

• Reduce supply/demand interaction that otherwise might develop between distant complementary areas.

• Jobs available in midway between home and destination.

• Opportunities closer at hand reduces the pull of opportunities offered by a distant destination (fig 3.3)

Measuring Interaction• Distance Decay- the decline of an activity or function with

increasing distance from its point of origin

• Inverse square relationship

• Friction of distance is reduced by lowered cost or increased ease of flow. Cellular phones usage, expressway extend commuting travel

• Gravity Model – the expected interaction (I) between two places A and B can be expressed as:

• I = (Pa * Pb)/Dab and

• Exchange between these two places

• Iab = (Pa*Pb)/(Dab)2 and the breaking point (BP) is

• BP = Dab / [1 + sqrt(Pa / Pb)] (fig 3.5)

Interaction Potential• More than 2 places interact in real world.• The more specialized the goods produced in each

separate center, the greater their collective complemetarity and the more likely is it that such multiple interactions will occur.

• Summarize the size and distance relationship between all points of potential interaction within an area.

• Movement Bias – direction bias (fig 3.6)certain places have a greater attraction than do others. East-West flow bias in N America.

Mobility

• Circulation – daily from dorm (house) to campus, spring breaks, summer and winter breaks, or temporary trips to work (fig 3.7)

• Migration – long-term commitment related to decisions to permanently leave the home territory and find residence in a new location.

Activity Space• Concept of territoriality – the emotional

attachment to and the defense of home ground. • Activity space – variables affect extent of activity

space– a) specific age stage in life course – b) mobility or ability to travel. Income, availability of

transportation, cost of fuel… – c) personal assessment of opportunities. Awareness

space – knowledge of opportunity locations beyond normal activity space will be limited is w/o stores, schools, factories….

Space-Time Prism• Figure 3.10 : (a) – deforested developing country (b)

walking to work/school c) automobile available.• Space, Time and Women (page 75)• Figure 3.11 – typical space-time path for a college

student.• Critical Distance(fig 3.12) – determined by life of course

stage, mobility, opportunities and individual’s interest. Knowledge (accumulated) acquired about activity space is affected and then help justify movements decisions.

• Fig 3.13 and 3.14 – patterns in shopping and work/non-work trip length

• Fig 3.15 – social interaction as a function of distance: visits with relatives with longer distance.

Information Flows

• Individual and mass communication and subdivided into formal and informal interchange . Formal interchange from newspaper, radio, phone) and non required in informal.

• Personal communication field, links between sets (fig 3.18)

• Mass communication – one-way info flow. NO inherent restrictions on the dissemination of printed materials.

• Flows between points and over area are influenced by distance decay and partially explained by gravity and potential models.

Perception of Environment• Place perception – feelings and understanding about the natural

and cultural characteristics of an area and its opportunity structure – important in making action decision in space.

• Most effectively transmitted information seems to come from word-of-mouth reports.

• Distance decay is one of the physical barriers. However, crowded places like in NYC not necessarily transmit more information from personal contact since the psychological barriers around themselves.

• Barriers to information flow give rise to what we called “direction bias”. In US N and S tend to be less well informed about each other’s areas than about the western part of the country. Traditional communication line follow E-W

• Fig 3.21 Residential preferences of Canadians. Climate is, after work and family proximity, the most often reported reason for interstate moves by adults in US.

Perception of Natural Hazards• Why do people choose to settle in areas of high-

consequence hazard in spite of the potential threat to their lives and property? Only one-tenth of 1% of respondents to a federal survey gave “natural disaster” as the reason for their interstate residential move.

• Common Responses to the Uncertainty of Natural Hazards (Table 3.1)– Eliminate the Hazards:

• Denyy it’s existence: We have no floods only high water• Deny it’s recurrence: Lightning never strikes twice

– Eliminate the Uncertainty• Make it determinate/knowable: floods comes every five years.• Transfer uncertainty to a higher power: It’s in the hands of God.

Migration• There is no greater

sorrow on earth than the loss of one’s native land - Euripides, 431 B.C.

• Migration, since the retreat of glaciers 11,000 years ago, has been the resultant pressures of numbers, need for food, changes in climate, and

Why Move?

Conditions are better, safer, easier ……..

http://www.mc.uky.edu/mdphd/moving.asp

Refugee (www.unhcr.ch) and(www.refugees.org)

Types of Refugees• International refugees - who have crossed one or more

international borders during their move.• Intranational refugees - who have abandoned their homes

but not their countries• permanent refugees - Palestinians in Jordan• temporary refugees - Palestinians in Lebanon

Characteristics of Refugees• Most refugees move without any more tangible property

than they can carry or transport with them• Most refugees make their first “step” on foot, by bicycle,

wagon, or open boat.• Refugees move without the official documents that

accompany channeled migration

External and Internal Migration• Migration - Emigration and Immigration • US has more immigrants than emigrants vs.

European countries• Early in the 20th century, black family moved from

south to the industrializing cities (rust-belt)• During 80s and 90s, people moved from East to

West, North to South.

Reasons for the departure• Economic Conditions - crossing the border to look for a

better opportunity• Political Circumstances - boat people fled Vietnam, Cubans

and most recently, East Timor..• Armed Conflict and Civil War, more than 2 mil. Left home

in Rwanda.• Environmental Conditions: Potato crisis in Ireland in

1840s. Earthquake and volcanic eruptions.• Culture and Traditions - Jewish left Russia in early 1990s• Technological Advances - air conditioning in Sunbelt• Flow of Information - new info highway spread the info

faster than ever.

Migration theory - Ernst Ravenstein1. Most move short distance (minimize friction

of distance)2. Big-city destinations if moved longer

distances3. Step movement (Step Migration)4. Most move from rural to urban5. Each migration flow produces a counterflow

(fig 3.30) (return migration in US accounts for 20% of migration)

6. Most are adults, families are less likely move7. Most international migrants are young males

(earlier days and now from Mexico and central America Survival strategy forces young girls from large/landless families emigrate.

8. On average, emigrants tend to be relatively well-educated.

Border Fencelink1Link2

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Push/Pull…………• Push factor - push people to leave their abodes• Pull factor - attract people to certain locals from other places• Are you being pushed or pulled into Cookeville?• Place Utility – the measure of an individual’s satisfaction with a given

residential location. (Starts a Spatial Search) Compare to current and future location, the relative place utility helps decision being made. Personal aspiration level (the level of accomplishment or ambition for her/him self) will be used to make decision for relocation.

• Chain Migration: follows the 1st group of immigration, the sebsequent migration originating in the same common origin and frequently reunited by kinship or friendship.

• Channelized migration: migration channels link areas that are in some way tied to one another by past migration, by economic trade or other affinity (not necessary family ties); such as southern whites/blacks to northern cities, Scadinavians to Minnesota and Wisconsin and US retirees to FL, AZ..(greater than expected flows) (fig 3.30)

Migration fields of FL and CA, 1980

Voluntary migration• Two major migration flows - Europeans to overseas

colonies and Africans to the Americas• American Dream - millions from Europe.• Irish families left for the New World - a “Pull” factor.• Muslims picked Pakistan instead of India. Religion

reason• In US. Retiree move to sunbelt - living with other

retiree - Florida and Arizona.• Tied to other factors: Push-Pull tied to

complimentarity, costs of relocation – related to transferability. larger cities more attractive is an example transferability and from small to large city is reflected on gravity model and hierarchical migration patterns.

Forced Migration• 1970s, Asians was forced to leave Uganda - forced migration

which is different kinds of forced migration. • Slave trade - a dark period in human history. Families were

destroyed, children orphaned, and communities disrupted. Loneliness and terror faced by the African slaves.

• Convicts were shipped from Britain to Australia (1788-1838)• During early 1900s, non-Russian forced to move to Central Asia

and Siberia for political reasons• Native Americans forced onto reservations during 1800s (fig.

3.25)• 1969, Indonesian government moved 8 million from Java to other

islands.• Counter migration- illegal entries are sent back by government.