Chapter 3 Spatial Interaction and Spatial Behavior

A fundamental question to ask is “what considerations influence how individual human beings use space and act within it?” * Ex. The gold rush brought thousands of people to new regions in search of riches.
Spatial interaction is the contact between humans and places. * This is an important matter as it demonstrates how humans live with other humans and how they make use of the resources and space around them.

3.1 Bases for Interaction

For two places to interact one must have what the other one wants.
Complementarity; there needs to be a direct supply and demand for the goods. * Ex. The Amazon and Greenland are not likely to be close traders but America and Canada are.
Transferability: there needs to be an acceptable means of cost to trade, this includes the logistics of moving goods. * Essentially, how mobile the goods are to move to another region.
Intervening opportunities reduce the supply/demand interactions between distant complementary areas. * Ex. Manhattan would not trade with the Sahara for sand if it’s available in the greater New York region,
The three conditions mentioned above are the controlling factors on how goods move around the globe.
Distance Decay * When an activity declines due to the distance of said activity increases. * All humans are influenced by the friction of distance, they will generally choose the closest and nearest location for their needs. * The decay is not linear and needs to account for many other factors such as cost.
The gravity concept * Humans go to larger areas to seek fortune, not smaller towns in the countryside. * Newton’s law of universal gravity in simpler terms states that larger things have bigger forces of attraction than smaller ones. * Ex. Malls with more stores, Cities with more opportunities. * Direction bias is used to show that flows are not random and there are reasons why people use certain routes to get to certain places.

3.2 Human Spatial Behavior

Geographers study behavior to improve models of spatial interaction to comprehend economic rationality and social gravity. * They do so by learning about the psychology of how people interact with the environment.
They account for how every human is different regardless of age, sex or culture.
Mobility is used to describe the movement of humans through space and time * Ex. Going to work and school or the grocery store.
Migration is used to describe the relocation of humans and where they settle * Ex. Going to college, refugees coming to a new country, seasonal workers.

3.3 Individual Activity Space

Territoriality is the emotional attachment to and the defence of home ground * Ex. Gangs defending their “turf, people protecting their houses.
All humans claim a personal space as a zone of privacy and separation that their culture and circumstances permit.
Humans also have an activity space where they move freely about their daily affairs * A suburban family may have a larger space due to their cars and jobs being further away. * People living in smaller slums have a much smaller space compared to others. * Many factors play into how one interacts with their space.

3.4 The Tyranny of Time

The study of the temporal characteristics of activities in conjunction with their spatial characteristics is known as time geography.
Every human has their space-time path which includes their daily activities. * Everyone has a certain amount of time in their day where they must conduct their responsibilities for work, parenting, eating etc.
Geographers apply the study of space-time budgets for problems like traffic control, mass transit and highway design.

3.5 Distance and Human Interaction

The majority of our trips are less than 20 minutes from home and humans are less likely to travel further to see friends and complete errands.
Spatial Interaction and the Accumulation of Information * Information travels through many different mediums; people, media, telephones. * The internet has made worldwide communications almost instant and transferability of information is no longer an issue.
Information Flows * Two types of flows * Individual (person to person) * Mass communication (source to area) * Each person also has their communication field * This field includes all the social contact it has during work or recreational activities.
Information and Cognition * All the decisions humans make are based on their cognition, geographers refer to this as place perception. * The most efficient transfer of information comes from word-of-mouth reports. Whether that be family, friends or reporters. * There are plenty of barriers to long-distance information such as money, mountains, oceans, different religions, language and political systems.
Cognition of Environment * The more familiar a person is with an area the more factual they will sound talking about it, while others have opinions that are not derived from true information.
Natural Hazards * Although the term includes natural, the amount of damage done to a certain area is determined by the amount of human settlement in the area. * Even after major disasters, most people begin to rebuild immediately after the disaster settles. * People aren’t the most aware of regions that are prone to such natural disasters. * Ex. People in California are concerned about tornados when thinking of moving to Kansas but are unconcerned about the earthquakes on the west coast. * Geographers have been studying why people continue to live in such dangerous regions even though it may not be worth the risk * Only 1% of all residential moves are due to natural disaster worries * Geographers believe that this is because people just don’t think it's likely to hit their specific house. * If people have not been previously affected by a disaster they believe that it’s not likely to occur. Essentially they believe that their reasonings outweigh the chance of it happening to them.
Migration * Migration is the permanent or planned long-term relocation of a residential place. * Migration affects national economic structures, determines population density and alters traditions and language. * Migration can be a college student changing dorms in his first year to the Europeans in the 19th century coming to America for riches and better opportunities. * Total displacement migration: Moving far from home, a place that has no activity spaces that overlap with their previous homes. * Partial displacement migrations: Where a local moves to a place nearby their previous house and has overlapping activity spaces. * In the 19th and 20th centuries, there was an influx of immigration to first-world countries due to the industrial revolution and the wars. * Many countries faced socio-economic issues with their resources being exerted. * In more recent times urban growth in these first-world countries has slowed down and the developing countries are urbanizing quicker than ever.
Motivations to Migrate * Migration can be forced or voluntary * Between the 16th and 19th centuries, 10 to 12 million Africans were forcefully migrated to the Western Hemisphere. * Soviets were relocated in the early 20th century from the countryside into cities. * Many countries with a high refugee population are among the poorest. * Poverty is the largest motivator of migration * Droughts, floods, wars and, terrorism are also deciding factors * Essentially Migrants move because they believe that their life circumstances will be better at their destination.
Controls on Migration * Push factor * The loss of jobs, overcrowding, poverty, war and famine are factors that lead people to migrate. * Pull factor * Safety, food, better climate, opportunity and better education are all reasons that attract people who wish to migrate. * Migrants generally get familiar with a couple of things before they move * They understand its utility (pull factors). * They get familiar with the region and try to understand what it’s like. * They try to reduce uncertainty about their new destination. * Chain migration is when the mover joins an established migrant flow of people from a common origin where they all migrate to a prepared destination. * Ex. All newspaper vendors in New Delhi come from the south of India. * Ex. All construction workers in New Delhi come from the east of India. * Most migrants move up the hierarchy of communities * Ex. From towns to cities or from a developing country to an established one. * Many rules of migration from the 1880s apply today as well. * Most migrants go a short distance and if longer it is to a larger city. * Generally from rural to urban. * Generally, young males migrate and families are not likely to. * Also are between the ages of 15 and 39. * Female migrants are motivated by economic pushes and pull * The majority of young and single women migrate to urban areas.