A Small World Perspective on Urban Systems - Methods for Multilevel Analysis and Visualisation of Geographical Networks - page 17

Chapter 2
A Small World Perspective on Urban Systems

Céline Rozenblat and Guy Melançon

2.1 Introduction

The increasing complexity of spatial organizations, in particular the organization of
cities, challenges the study of spatial distributions. Places tend to be seen more and
more as nodes in specialized networks, and their future is undoubtedly strongly de-
pendent on their position in these networks ( Castells , 1996 ). Geographical distances
and accessibility always matter in spatial dynamics, but in parallel, other distances
appear as relevant: social, economical, cultural and organizational distances can
also interfere in spatial dynamics. As a consequence, geography, as a science of
society in space, must work at defining and measuring how spatial accessibility
dynamics influence other kinds of distances and how processes emerge from spatial
or territorial dimensions. From this perspective, in a social-science division of work,
geography could be defined as the science dedicated to the identification of spatial
patterns and their implications at specific geographical levels of scale.
These geographical levels are themselves evolving according to systems of social
processes. For example, globalization processes are developing as transport and
communication speeds are increasing (and as costs are decreasing) but are also
changing according to organizational transformations of society, deriving from
actors themselves, like companies and subsidiaries, social groups and institu-
tional arrangements. These types of interactions and their dynamics explain why