Place in social process : an exploratory data analysis of outcomes from localised labour exchange
Date
1986
Authors
Murney, Anthony P
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The principle tenet of this Study is that place and its role in social process is
poorly understood. This is a serious problem in human geography where one of the
major tasks is to elucidate the spatial elements in social process. The resulting
difficulties are compounded in empirical analysis where the spatial and social are
highly disaggregated. Any response must, therefore, address these features of the
problem if the situation is to be redressed. A twofold response was formulated.
The first, concentrates attention on labour exchange as a key element of social
process and investigates spatial differences from the highly disaggregated local
perspective. The second involves transferring Tukey's philosophy of
EXPLORATORY DATA ANALYSIS to geographical research. This has been done
to overcome analytical rigidities which impede progress where theory concept or dat a
are sufficiently suspect as to cause uncertainty. Implementation of this strategy
progresses from comparatively simple and conventional treatments of place in labour
exchange to more sophisticated examinations which explore spatial aspects of
differentiation in controlled analytical environments. Substantive investigation of labour exchange, from an exploratory point of
view, provides powerful insights into the role of place in labour exchange because it
is less constrained than conventional treatments. These insights are manifest
through analyses of extent and nature in differentiation between places. Results are
of three types: structure in place and social process which establish a prima facie
case for more general analysis; structure of place in a widely defined social
environment; structure in social process which is sufficiently general as to sustain
hypotheses of ubiquitous spatial structure. These interim findings, of merit in their
own right, combine to provide a sound foundation for proposition of a model
relating place to social process. This model is significant because it reverses the
principal tenet of traditional empirical models, which reduce place to the status of
an analytical convenience, and argues that it is inherent in considerations of social
process.
Description
Keywords
Citation
Collections
Source
Type
Thesis (PhD)
Book Title
Entity type
Access Statement
License Rights
Restricted until
Downloads
File
Description