Spatial Analysis

by

Stephen Matthews

Introduction

Recent years have seen a rapid growth in interest in the addition of a spatial perspective, especially in the social and health sciences, and in part this growth has been driven by the ready availability of georeferenced or geospatial data, and the tools to analyze them: geographic information systems (GIS), spatial analysis, and spatial statistics. Indeed, research on race/ethnic segregation and other forms of social stratification as well as research on human health and behavior problems, such as obesity, risk-taking behaviors, and crime, depend on the collection and analysis of individual- and contextual-level (geographic area) data across a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. Given all of these considerations, researchers are continuously developing new ways to harness and analyze geo-referenced data. Indeed, a prerequisite for spatial analysis is the availability of information on locations (i.e., places) and the attributes of those locations (e.g., poverty rates, educational attainment, or disease prevalence). Spatial analysis is a general term to describe an array of statistical techniques that utilize locational information to better understand the pattern of observed attribute values and the processes that generated the observed pattern. The best-known early example of spatial analysis is John Snow’s 1854 cholera map of London, but the origins of spatial analysis can be traced back to France during the 1820s and 1830s and the period of morale statistique, specifically the work of Guerry, D’Angeville, Duplin, and Quetelet. The foundation for current spatial statistical analysis practice is built on methodological development in both statistics and ecology during the 1950s and quantitative geography during the 1960s and 1970s and it is a field that has been greatly enhanced by improvements in computer and information technologies relevant to the collection, and visualization and analysis of geographic or geospatial data. Today four main methodological approaches to spatial analysis can be indentified in the literature: exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA), spatial statistics, spatial econometrics, and geostatistics. The diversity of spatial-analytical methods available to researchers is wide and growing; a function of the different types of analytical units and data types used in formal spatial analysis—specifically, point data (e.g., crime events, disease cases), line data (e.g., networks, routes), spatial continuous or field data (e.g., accessibility surfaces), and area or lattice data (e.g., unemployment and mortality rates). Applications of geospatial data and/or spatial analysis are increasingly found in sociological research, especially in studies of spatial inequality, residential segregation, demography, and criminology.

General Overviews

Many problems faced by society and by social scientists require analysis of complex patterns of interrelated social, behavioral, economic, and environmental phenomena. In addressing these problems, it has been argued that both spatial thinking and spatial analytical perspectives play an important role. The role of spatial thinking and analysis is clearly articulated in Goodchild, et al. 2000, a comprehensive review of the emerging interest in space and place in recent social science literatures. Indeed, the authors don’t just provide a review; they develop a vision for a spatially integrated social science, whereby the spatial perspective becomes an incubator for interdisciplinary research. Examples of how spatial analysis informs interdisciplinary research can be found in the Goodchild and Janelle 2004 “best practices” book. This edited collection includes state-of-the-art research on a diverse set of substantive topics, including crime incidence in urban environments, migration, population and environment research, and the diffusion of fertility decline in third world settings. A recent overview article, Logan, et al. 2010, provides a more concise introduction to the challenges and opportunities of spatial analysis in the areas of community health, population and environment, residential segregation, land use, fertility, and migration research. The rediscovery of spatial thinking and spatial perspectives within sociology has been promoted in an excellent article, Gieryn 2000, while Lobao, et al. 2007 focuses explicitly on the need to incorporate spatial perspectives in sociological research, broadening the study of (spatial) inequality. Focusing on demographic applications, special issues of two leading journals emphasize spatially informed research on demographic processes and outcomes. Watcher 2005 is an outstanding special issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on spatial demography, while Voss 2007 is a similarly titled special issue of Population Research and Policy Review. In the opening paper of the latter, Voss demonstrates that both sociology and demography had a strong spatial heritage dating back one hundred years. The increasing interest in spatial econometrics, local spatial modeling, and the bridging of micro (individual) and macro (geographically defined contexts) levels via the integration of new forms of geospatial data with multilevel models implies a solid future for spatial sociology and spatial demography. In the field of sociology, several substantive areas have embraced spatial thinking and analytical methods; see Spatial Inequality, Residential Segregation, Demography, and Crime.

• Gieryn, Thomas F. 2000. A space for place in sociology. Annual Review of Sociology 26:463–495.

  DOI: 10.1146/annurev.soc.26.1.463E-mail Citation »

  This often-cited article argues that sociologists “have a stake in place no matter what they analyze, or how.” Gieryn provides exemplars of place-sensitive sociology in studies of inequality, power, politics, social movements, community, deviance, crime, identity, memory, and history.

• Goodchild, M., L. Anselin, R. Appelbaum, and B. Harthorn. 2000. Towards spatially integrated social science. International Regional Science Review 23:139–159.

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  This paper synthesizes the vision behind the Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science at UC Santa Barbara, an effort to advance and disseminate geographic tools and concepts—spatial analysis, geographic information systems, geolibraries—as integrating themes that cut across the traditional disciplinary boundaries of the social and behavioral sciences.

• Goodchild, Michael F., and Donald G. Janelle, eds. 2004. Spatially integrated social science. Spatial Information Systems. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.

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  This is an outstanding collection of applications of spatial analysis and spatial thinking in the social sciences colloquially referred to as the “Best Practices” book. Chapters are grouped on the basis of four levels of analysis: individual/household, neighborhood, region, and multiscale. Contributors are leading scholars with sociologists, criminologists, and demographers well represented.

• Lobao, Linda M., Gregory Hooks, and Ann R. Tickamyer, eds. 2007. The sociology of spatial inequality. Albany: State Univ. of New York Press.

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  Based on an ASA/NSF workshop, this book reasserts spatial thinking/analysis in inequality research. The book is organized around conceptual and methodological issues, studies of spatial inequality, and future directions in spatial sociology. Sociologists are encouraged to pay attention to the scale of geographic levels at which social processes occur.

• Logan, John R., Weiwei Zhang, and Hongwei Xu. 2010. Applying spatial thinking in social science research. GeoJournal 75.1: 15–27.

  DOI: 10.1007/s10708-010-9343-0E-mail Citation »

  The theme of this paper is that the appropriate use of spatial tools requires careful thinking about spatial concepts. Key concepts are reviewed and methodological innovations are discussed with exemplars taken from applications of spatial models in community health, population and environment, residential segregation, land use, fertility, and migration research.

• Voss, Paul. 2007. Demography as a spatial social science. In Special Issue: Spatial demography, part 1. Population Research and Policy Review 26.5: 457–476.

  DOI: 10.1007/s11113-007-9047-4E-mail Citation »

  In the opening paper of two special issues of PRPR on spatial demography, Voss discusses the role of geographic space in quantitative demography and provides a review of spatial demography since the early 20th century. The growing interest in spatial econometrics suggests an exciting future for quantitative spatial demographers. The preceding two pages (Introduction to the special issue of PRPR on spatial demography, pp. 455–456) are also recommended reading.

• Watcher, Kenneth W. 2005. Spatial demography. In Special Issue: Spatial demography. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 102.43: 15299–15300.

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  Watcher provides a two-page introduction to a special issue of PNAS on spatial demography that includes papers by Hanson; Clark; Plane, et al.; Rogerson and Kim; Ellis and Wright; Forest; and VanWey, et al. As Watcher writes, they provide “a taste of current work in spatial demography.”