The effect of place

The effect of space cannot be demonstrated simply by relying on the dialectic of nature and culture but only careful analysis. The complexity of the problem is exemplified by discussing the diversity of perception attaching to the iron and steel assemblage, at Mondeville near Caen, where each group — managers, workforce, wives and local people — have different images of the assemblage, giving it a composite identity. Usage permits a classification of place into five types: production, habitation, exchange, play and power. Social space consists of associations of places. In simpler societies all types of usage are present at or near one site; in the countryside and in old European towns usages are separate but closely located. With industrial urban societies, with high personal mobility, places with different usage are widely separated. Associated with this third type of association are landscapes of high uniformmity — banal and undifferentiated. Space thus bears the imprint of society. The effect of space is more a social product than a spatial product.Translated by editorThis paper is an extract from a work to be published in spring 1984 by Masson: Chevalier, J.; Frémont, A.; Hérlin R.; Renard, J.: La géographie sociate.