Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
activities in space-time burgeoned, not only among geographers but amid transport researchers
as well (Kwan, 2004). During the 1990s, however, interest in the fi eld (at least among
geographers) gradually faded, while in transport studies there were a number of 'activity
based analysis' projects that explicitly drew upon time-geographic notions (e.g. Kitamura
et al.
, 1990).
As time has passed, attitudes towards time geography have been somewhat ambivalent.
It was praised for its representational capabilities and for offering a conceptual and
methodological basis for empirical research. It has also, however, been strongly criticised
for being too 'physicalistic', 'reductionistic', 'objectivistic' and 'masculinistic' (Gren, 2001:
209). Giddens, having to a certain extent tempered his initial enthusiasm, questioned
time geography's 'naïve and defective conception of the human agent', which meant
that it would often consider individuals 'independently of the social settings, which they
confront in their day-to-day activities' (Giddens, 1984). Time geography, he concluded,
is no more than 'a weakly developed theory of power' (for various critiques of time geog-
raphy, see also Harvey, 1989: 211-13; and a summary of the critiques in Gregory, 2000:
832-3. For some responses to those critiques, see Gregory, 1994: 245-54; Kwan, 2002:
653-4).
The past decade has seen a resurgence in time-geographic studies. The spread of increas-
ingly sophisticated geographical information systems (GIS), capable of providing detailed
computational representations and more precise measurements of basic time-geographic
entities, including space-time paths and prisms, persuaded a growing number of researchers
to return to the time geography fold (Miller, 2005c). The development of new digital
information technologies, such as cellular phones, wireless Personal Digital Assistants,
Location Based Services, Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers and radiolocation
methods, multiplied the volume and improved the spatio-temporal resolutions of the
empirical data obtained to a degree previously unimagined and thus aided the recent revival
of the fi eld (Miller, 2005c). For more on these technologies' contributions to geographic
research see also Kwan (2004) and Shoval and Isaacson (2006).
Hägerstrand's concept of time geography captured the way in which space and time
constrains individuals in their day-to-day lives (Hägerstrand, 1970). As time geography
has it, human activities occur in specifi c locations and for limited time periods only. Thus,
transport systems, by enabling people to travel from one place (activity) to another, allow
them to make more effi cient use of their time-space restrictions by trading time for space.
According to Hägerstrand, an individual's ability to move from one location (activity) to
another is dependent upon the combined effect of three types of constraints:
1.
Capability constraints
, which include such things as: the need for a minimum amount of
sleep, which, of course, limits the amount of time available for travelling; the kind of
transport used - bicycle, car, or train - which marks the boundaries of the territory within
which people pursue their daily life paths.
2.
Coupling constraints
, which is the need to meet and team up with other individuals
or groups at particular locations and for set time periods. This, naturally, limits an
individual's ability to participate in activities taking place in other locations.
3.
Authority constraints
, defi ned as the right and ability of sundry public or private authorities
to limit or regulate access to various locations at different points in time.
The specifi c constraints that are relevant in the case of tourists will be discussed later in this
chapter.
