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The concept of space has always been a fundamental element in various branches of knowledge. The concept often appears in the evolution of knowledge, either as a basis of theory or as a factor in research. It is associated, more or less directly, with all the history of scientific thought. At the level of simple common sense, the importance of the concept of space is only equaled by its lack of precision. It was part of legend before becoming part of history. To indicate the founding of Rome, Romulus started by drawing the boundaries, locating its landmarks in a discontinuous space after having cut the limits of a continuous space. However, neither geographical explorations nor mathematico-logical speculations have ever completely removed the mystery from the concept of space. For all its simple common sense, its mystique remains intact. The privileged position occupied by the concept of space in the history of science and the vagueness of its meaning in the current use of the term, far from constituting a paradox, are mutually explanatory. Every concept of space is necessarily the result of an abstraction, whether the process by which it is reached is through mathematics, psychology, biology, or any other discipline. At the level of common knowledge, the space-time concept is the base upon which are arranged individual experiences. It is thus easy to understand how the concept of space can be understood only through an orderly arrangement of these experiences and their integration into a logical scheme.
List of contents
1. Before Thunen.- Section 1. Space in 18th Century Economic Thought.- Section 2. The Break Between Spatial Analysis and the English Classical School.- 2. Johann-Heinrich Von Thunen.- Genesis of Thunen's Theories.- Section 1. The Model of Concentric Rings.- Section 2. Thunen and His Time.- Conclusion.- 3. From Thunen to Weber.- Section 1. The Anglo-Saxon Descriptions.- Section 2. Towards the First German Deductive Theories.- 4. Alfred Weber.- Historical and Theoretical Background of the Weberian Analysis.- Section 1. Parameters and Assumptions.- Section 2. The Three Types of Location Orientation.- Section 3. The System of Locations.- Conclusion.- 5. From Weber to Palander.- Section 1. Andreas Predohl.- Section 2. From Englander to Christaller.- Section 3. From Fetter to Ohlin.- 6. Tord Palander.- The Goals and Methods of Palander's Theories.- Section 1. Market and Location.- Section 2. Transport Cost, Location of Production, and Market Size.- Section 3. Conditions of Competition and Location.- Conclusion.- 7. From Palander to Losch.- 8. August Losch.- The Background for Losch's Theories.- Section 1. The Theory of Location.- Section 2. The Theory of Regions.- Section 3. The Theory of Exchange.- Conclusion.- 9. From Losch to the Nineteen Fifties.- Section 1. Partial Spatial Equilibria.- Section 2. General Spatial Equilibrium.- 10. Since the Nineteen Fifties.- The Scientific Environment During the Second Half of the 20th Century.- Section 1. The Paradigms.- Section 2. New Directions.- Conclusion.- Conclusion.- Mathematical Appendix.- I. Von Thunen's Models.- 1. Concentric Rings.- 2. Theory of the Natural Wage.- II. Weber's Models.- 1. The Point of Minimum Transport Cost.- 2. Labor Deviation (The Isodapane Technique).- 3. Agglomeration.- III. Palander's Models.-1. The Delineation of the Market.- 2. Price Policy and Transport Costs.- 3. Isoline Technique.- 4. Law of Refraction.- 5. Conditions of Competition and Location.- IV. Losch's Models.- 1. Location of Two Agricultural Products.- 2. The Equations of General Spatial Equilibrium.- 3. Economic Regions.- 4. Spatial Differentiation of Prices.- Chronological Bibliography.- Author Index.
