Ian, Looking at the work of Geographers is a good place to start - and partly the reason I am doing some specialize course work in GIS here the U of Minn.  However, Paul is certainly correct that the majority of the work done in the 1960-1980s has been cast aside by modern geographers and GIS folks because of the rigidity of the models, (ie. gravity models or social physics of the most of the period), their emphasis on econometrics (with inherent misconceptions of maximization and omniscience), and the general lack of cultural underpinnings in regards to preference, etc.  However, we must not throw the baby out with the bathwater - good progress has been made, and just looking at Spatial Choice Models each new generation has grown to include the work of the past group (ie. gravity models to Wilson's Family to Alonso's GTM to Fotheringham's Competitive Destination Model).  

The key to all this, however, has been that as Geography and GIS have continued to move forward and make more complex and subtle models, they have also been more open to inter-disciplinary involvement in model making - at least it appears that way on paper.

I must admit, research from Great Britain is certainly leading the way here (I site Fotheringham and the now retired Sir Alan Wilson).


Jeremy Nienow
University of Minnesota
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: paul courtney<mailto:[log in to unmask]> 
  To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> 
  Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2005 4:11 AM
  Subject: Re: Historical distances Question


  Yes considerable literature in locational and economic geography as Iain
  notes but hardly cutting edge of modern geography. Useful for very basic
  models but has to be balanced against other political and economic
  factors such as capitalisation, trade connections and uneven
  development. I have just written a chapter on urbanism for the
  early-modern volume of the Gwent County History (SE Wales) which shows
  urbanism amd markets skewing notably to eastern  margin of county
  reflecting neo-colonial economy (raw materials out,consumer goods in).
  The whole pattern was then turned upside down by coal boom of 19th
  century with Gwent's failing town (Newport) suddenly becoming the
  largest. Site catchment archaeologists all converted to Braudel about
  time regional historians had heavily critqued those very aspects of his
  environmemntal determinism that attracted archaeologists.

  paul


  Iain Stuart wrote:

  >This sounds like a question likely to have been addressed by geographers especially the spatial geographers of the 1960s and earlier geographers looking at why spatial patterns occur. A good introduction to these questions as they relate to land use is
  >
  >Chisholm, Michael. Rural Settlement and Land Use. London: Hutchinson & Co, 1968.
  >
  >This text was very influential on some of the models of prehistory land use particularly site catchment analysis, even though it was based on more contemporary observations.
  >
  >A search of the geographic literature should go a long way to helping you with your research.
  >
  >Iain Stuart
  >
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