Geography, Physics and Synergetics

Denise Pumain (1)

1 GC (UMR_8504) - Géographie-cités

Geography has a long tradition of borrowing concepts and mathematical models from physical sciences. Applications of the gravitational model for the analysis and prediction of spatial interactions are the best known examples, since about the middle of the XIXth century. However, dissatisfaction with the terms of the analogy led geographers to substitute to the mechanical metaphor a broader and more vague organicist metaphor, which remained typical of the French school of geography until the 1950’s. Today, many properties of synergetics are thought very attractive by geographers as a general framework for reflexion and modelling. Geographical space is often conceptualized as the result of interactions among social actors, which produce a hierarchical structure, with several levels of organization. With a better understanding of individual behaviour, dynamic models can be conceived, for instance for cities or regions. Therefore, a closer collaboration of physicists and geographers is needed.

Mots clés: epistemology of geography; modelling; synergetics; physical models; gravity model; fractals; urban and regional dynamics

Domaines: Géographie; Méthodes et statistiques; Histoire, Philosophie et Sociologie des sciences

Denise Pumain. Geography, Physics and Synergetics. Economic evolution and demographic change, pp.157-175, 1992, 978-3-540-56172-9. ⟨hal-01524155⟩