Spatial Concept Perspectives

We have gathered ~300 excerpts from published works about fundamental spatial concept terms. These have been cross-referenced with the concept lexicon appearing on the left. Those terms were drawn from the U.S.National Science Education Standards (NSES 1996) for topic areas B - Physical Science, C - Life Science, D - Earth and Space Science, as well as from the 1994 U.S. Geography Teaching Standards for grades 9-12. Those standards can be browsed here.

spatial concept terms

disciplinary perspectives on "neighborhood"

neighborhood

There are a number of ways of conceptualizing...[neighborhood]. We might, for example, define the neighborhood of a particular spatial entity as the set of all other entities adjacent to the entity we are interested in.... Alternatively, the neighborhood of an entity may be defined...as a region of space associated with that entity and defined by distance from it.

Geography

O'Sullivan and Unwin (2002)

Geographic Information Analysis

neighborhood

Topic AM4-3.

Geography
Education

DiBiase, et al. (2006)

Geographic Information Science and Technology Body of Knowledge

neighborhood

"People think of themselves as living in neighbourhoods, or places that are sufficiently close to be experienced on a day-to-day basis. Very often neighbourhood is the basis of spatial context, characterising the nature of a person's surroundings. Neighbourhoods are often conceived as partitioning an urban space, such that every point lies in exactly one neighbourhood, but this may conflict with individual perceptions of neighbourhood, and by the expectation that neighbourhood extends in all directions around every individual's location....

Geography

de Smith, et al. (2008)

Geospatial Analysis: A comprehensive guide to principles, techniques, and software tools

neighborhood

‘The terms “neighborhood” and “community” are often used interchangeably. … But neighborhoods have to do with natural topographic boundaries and even transportation lines. Community refers to the delicate lattice of human networks and social institutions. Community also represents the shared meaning of residents, a moral order and ideals, memory and expectations; … needs that are upheld, if only in the breach, in streets and homes, businesses and public institutions.’

Levine and Harmon (1993)

The Death of a Jewish Community: A Tragedy of Good Intentions

neighborhood and region

Drawing inferences from spatial context . Understanding the situations and neighborhoods of places. Definitions of neighborhood based on the spatial behavior of humans and other organisms. Formal and functional regions and concepts of territory.

Social Science

Janelle and Goodchild (2011)

Concepts, Principles, Tools, and Challenges in Spatially Integrated Social Science