Vol. 9, No. 1, April 1971 - "Quantification in Geography"
FACTORS AFFECTING REGIONAL TRENDS IN GROWTH OF THE AGED IN PENNSYLVANIA, 1950 - 1960
(pp. 1 - 8)
Dr. George A. Schnell
State University College - New Paltz
New Paltz, New York
Abstract
In Pennsylvania, the number of inhabitants 65 and over has increased steadily for many decades. Such growth exhibits spatial bias, as is the case with most, if not all, population trends. Given the usual numerical inferiority of the elderly cohort,1 however, the regional patterns of change among the aged cannot be clearly discerned unless an attempt is made to measure such trends in a manner which effectively segregates them from changes within the total population. Too often, trends among the aged are distorted when treated as a proportion of the total number of inhabitants. Trends among the numerically superior younger cohorts thus produce a relative increase in the 65 and over group in response to their (the under 65 group's) out-migration and, given immigration of significant magnitude, a relative decrease of the aged. Perhaps of greater importance in the argument for study of the aged as a distinct group is the notion that the elderly, because of their less direct connection with, and dependence upon, the local economy, operate somewhat independently of the general population in their migrational behavior and resultant growth patterns.
A FLOW ALGORITHM FOR THE TRADE OF SMALL DEVELOPING NATIONS
(pp. 9 - 15)
Dr. James E. McConnell
State University of New York - Buffalo
Buffalo, New York
Abstract
Linnemann, in his econometric analysis of the 1959 value trade flows of some 80 countries, suggests that there are essentially three factors that contribute to a quantitative explanation of the size and spatial orientations of the trade flow patterns between any pair of countries. These are the factors indicating total potential supply of the exporting country on the world market, factors indicating total potential demand of the importing country on the world market, and factors representing the resistance to a trade, flow between the two countries concerned. In more formal terms, following Linnemann, let EP indicate total potential supply, let MP equal the potential demand, let R identify the resistance force, and let p refer to the exponent (assumed to be equal to unity).
ON THE VERIFICATION OF A CENTRAL PLACE IN DENMARK
(pp. 16 - 21)
Harold Jensen, Graduate Student
University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa
Abstract
In 1966, Illeris, Kongstad, and Larsen, published an article in Geografisk Tidsskrift which, via Guttman Scalogram technique, established that some order exists in the occurrence of central functions in the towns of Jutland, i.e. as towns increase in size so do they offer higher order goods plus all the goods of lower order centers. The writers also divided the towns into three classes, based on the number of occurring functions. Whether their findings are sufficient to establish that a central place system exists is doubtful, and. Illeris et. al. seems to have accepted a central place system on a priori grounds. The chances of a system of central place actually existing in the area appear to be good, because many of the basic assumptions of a central place system are satisfied here undefined the isotropic plane, an undifferentiated transportation network, and others. The only factor which would tend to distort the general picture is the higher population density in the eastern part of the study area causing a greater clustering of the towns.
QUANTIFICATION AND THE SCIENCE OF GEOGRAPHY
(pp. 22 - 25)
Dr. Vincent P. Miller, Jr.
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Indiana, Pennsylvania
Abstract
Some years ago Barry Floyd penned an essay questioning the value of quantitative techniques in geographical analysis. One of Dr. Floyd's major points was that the use of the language of mathematics actually created a clique, an in-group that represented a departure from the "main stream" of geographic thought. In his concluding remarks Floyd cited the words of J. K. Wright in comparing quantification to a tiresome old dragon that throws its weight around. Seven years after the appearance of Dr. Floyd's analysis, it is worthwhile to review the rake's progress of quantification, both in terms of its effect on the main currents of geographic thought and the on-going change within the sphere of spatial quantitative analysis. The amount of quantitative literature in the field is large and comments here are restricted to major publication efforts, books, that have appeared on the subject.