Spatial Interaction

Connections between places

Space-Time Compression

The time it takes for something to reach another place is getting shorter Promotes rapid

changes Spreads cultural

and economic ideas much more quickly

Ex. Cross-continental travel

It’s a Small World…and getting smaller.

Spatial Interaction Only possible by

physical travel in the past

Today, people can interact in many forms Facebook Teleconference

Limits potential for ‘distance decay’ Groups far apart were

unlikely to interact in the past.

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Diffusion

Process by which something spreads across space from one place to another over time Ex. – inventions,

ideas, values Hearth – The place

from which an innovation originates

Spread of cell phone usage, 1980-2010

Relocation Diffusion

Spread of an idea through the physical movement of people from one place to another Usually for political

or economic reasons

Newcomers bring their culture with them (language, religion…)

Expansion Diffusion

The spread of a feature from one place to another in a ‘snowballing process’

Three kinds of expansion diffusion: Hierarchical

diffusion Contagious diffusion Stimulus diffusion

http://people-equation.com/wp-content/uploads/snowball_iStock_000007725565XSmall.jpg http://people-

equation.com/wp-content/uploads/snowball_iStock_000007725565XSmall.jpg

Hierarchical Diffusion

Hierarchical Ideas or trends are

spread by persons of power or influence

Ex. Trends in fashion often start in NYC, Paris, or Milan and spread to the rest of the world.

Contagious Diffusion

Contagious Widespread

diffusion throughout the population

The farther you are from the source, the later you are impacted

Ex: Spread of communicable diseases

Ex1: Students will talk with slang well before it reaches the teachers.

Stimulus Diffusion

Stimulus Spread of an

underlying principle (ex. computer mouse)

Mac and Windows were about the same until Windows used the mouse, then it spread faster.

Cultural and Economic Diffusion Core regions - North

America, Western Europe, Japan

Peripheral regions – most of Asia, Africa, Latin America

Uneven Development Increasing gap in

economic conditions between regions of the world (core vs. periphery)

Result of a global economy