Allan Pred

The Choreography of Existence: Comments on Hägerstrand's Time-Geography and Its Usefulness

The need for human geography to turn inward with respect to the definition of research problems and the use of conceptual structures is pointed to, and it is suggested that Hagerstrands time-geography is especially appropriate for this purpose. The contents and intents of Hagerstrands time-geography are briefly presented. The planning applications of time- geography are sketched, and the possible applications of the framework to traditional themes in human geography are discussed. Other possible uses for the time-geography framework are also considered. Finally, the challenge posed by Hagerstranas time-geography is summarized.

The interurban transmission of growth in advanced economies: Empirical findings versus regional-planning assumptions

Pred A. R. (1976) The interurban transmission of growth in advanced economies: Empirical findings versus regional-planning assumptions, Reg. Studies 10, 151–171. It is proposed that the disappointing record of growth-centre and growth-pole policies in advanced economies is in some measure attributable to mistaken assumptions concerning interurban growth-transmission. The reasoning behind the hinterland-spread and hierarchical diffusion assumptions of interurban growth-transmission is outlined and briefly criticized. The relationships between the spatial structure of organisations and interurban growth-transmission are sketched and organisational spatial structure data for seven metropolitan complexes of the western United States are presented. This data, and the summarized findings of other recent research projects, consistently point to the inaccuracy of the growth-transmission assumptions held by many regional planners and academics in advanced economies. Consequently, certain realities that need to be ...

Production, family, and free-time projects: a time-geographic perspective on the individual and societal change in nineteenth-century U.S. cities

Abstract Time-geography, with its path and project concepts, is very well suited for seeking insights regarding the interplay between individual behavior and experience, the workings of society, and societal change. In order to demonstrate this suitability the impacts of the emergence of the factory and large-scale shop mode of production in nineteenth-century U.S. cities are examined. Particular emphasis is placed on the timespace requirements of production projects, or activities, and their impact both on the functioning of the family and individual participation in “free-time” projects outside the home.

Diffusion, Organizational Spatial Structure, and City-System Development

With increasing frequency geographers and other scholars are employing an innovation-diffusion framework in order to interpret and model the development processes of systems of cities and regions [4; 15; 16; 21; 22; 30]. If diffusion interpretations of city-system development are to apply in a realistic manner to advanced economies, they ought to explicitly take into account the role played by those multifunctional, multilocational organizations within both the private and public sectors that are answering for an ever larger share of total employment. In addition, any model of the process of city-system development should be consistent with the considerable body of evidence indicating that over quite long periods of time there is little size-rank shifting among either the largest units of national systems of cities or the leading centers of major regional subsystems of cities [24; 33; 34]. In accordance with these observations, this paper accomplishes three things: 1. It considers the role of large job-providing organizations in the diffusion of growth-inducing innovations. 2. It outlines a preliminary model for describing how the locational patterns of major job-providing organizations and the intermetropolitan circulation of specialized information interact to influence the process of city-system development in advanced economies in such a way as to maintain large-city rank stability.

Time-geography: a new beginning:

In a recent brief critique Alan Baker (1979) has, conveniently perhaps, touched upon a number of commonly held myths and misunderstandings about timegeography, as well as making some valid criticisms. Baker, like many others, mistakenly views time-grography merely as a rigid descriptive model of spatial and temporal organization which lends itself to accessibility constraint analysis (and related exercises in social engineering). But, timegeography is much more than that. It is a discipline-transcending and still evolving perspective on the everyday workings of society and the biographies of individuals. It is a highly flexible and growing language, a way of thinking about the world at large as well as the events and experiences, or content, of one’s own life. We want

Somebody Else, Somewhere Else: Racisms, Racialized Spaces and the Popular Geographical Imagination in Sweden

In conjunction with recurrent economic dislocations and the restructuring and melting of national capitalisms into one another, there has been a resurgence of racisms in Europe; even in Sweden, a country long stereotyped as an international champion of equality and economic and political justice. An array of concrete and racialized spaces has emerged and contributed to the further spread of racism. Deeply enmeshed in this process is a disjuncture between racist attitudes and behaviors, and a widely held image of the self and the nation as altruistic and just. Confronted by such internal dissonance, many, if not most, Swedes resolve matters through denial and projection: believing or asserting that the countrys only racists are either skinhead youths or right-wing extremists, “somebody else.” The contradiction between the racisms and national identity is also commonly culturally reworked through projecting upon other locations as well as other groups. To demonstrate the complexities and internal contradictions of this popular geographical imagination, this paper provides a detailed depiction and critique of one of its elements—the municipality of Sjobo.

Interfusions: consumption, identity and the practices and power relations of everyday life

Consumption involves knowledge acquisition and act-ual usage—not simply shopping and purchasing—and therefore is intricately bound up with the practices, power relations, and discourses of everyday life. Widely accepted observations about the fluidity and multiple dimensions of identity do not adequately link situated practices with the repeated (re)constitution and destabilization of identity elements. Moreover, it is not only through the use of purchased goods to produce individual and collective difference that consumption and identity are connected. Circumstances in contemporary commodity societies demand that critical human geographical studies of consumption and identity unconventionally couple ethnography and political economy, that the practices of ‘safe’ geography and ‘safe’ representation be forsaken.

Structuration, Biography Formation, and Knowledge: Observations on Port Growth during the Late Mercantile Period

The impact of human agency and constraining and enabling structural conditions on the growth of ports during the late mercantile period is addressed from three vantage points. Fernand Braudels works on mercantile capitalism are reassessed. A prepositional summary of my own theory of place as historically contingent process is presented. Finally, the interplay of biography formation, knowledge acquisition, and the growth of Boston, Massachusetts, between 1783 and 1812 is considered.

Toward a Typology of Manufacturing Flows

IT IS clear that large-scale manufacturing plants with identical producing functions but different relative locations within a region or country will have different flow (volume and length) characteristics. Likewise, it is clear that large-scale manufacturing plants with dissimilar producing functions but coincident or near-coincident relative locations will have disparate flow characteristics. However, although access to markets and other factors have been recognized as influencing the volume and length of manufacturing commodity flows associated with particular places and industries, no attempt has been made to interpret such phenomena within a general theoretical framework.

Presidential address interpenetrating processes: Human agency and the becoming of regional spatial and social structures

Three critical questions are addressed through the juxtaposition of aphorisms, propositions, and empirical fragments pertaining to early nineteenth century enclosures in Skåne and the industrial restructuring of Ciudad Juárez. What about the role of human agency in the production and day-to-day perpetuation of economic landscapes, places and regions? What about structuring processes and history in regional science? How is the unbroken flow of concrete, fine-grained human activity within the region related to more macrolevel processes?