The Dictionary of Human Geography

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change in neighbourhood context and accessi-

bility do indeed lead to improved employment

and educational opportunities (Clark, 2005c).

One interesting and unanticipated outcome

of this experiment has been that substantial

numbers of households have subsequently

moved back to their old neighbourhoods, places

with which they are familiar and are where their

families and friends remain (Clark, 2005). sha

Suggested reading

Holzer (1991); Preston and McLafferty (1999).

spatial monopoly Monopolistic control

over amarketby virtue of location. The

usual meaning ofmonopolyis that one firm

or individual sells the entire output of some

commodityorservice. This is normally the

final outcome of a competitive process taking

place undercapitalistmarket conditions, in

which one supplier is able to produce and

sell the commodity at a price favourable

enough to consumers to force other suppliers

out of business. Spatial monopoly is a special

case, in which distance from competitors or

ways of bounding space give a producer mon-

opolistic control over a section of the market.

Spatial monopoly can arise when a producer

is distributing a commodity from its point of

origin, and also when consumers travel to the

point of origin. In the first case, the operation

of an f.o.b. pricing policy, whereby the cost of

transportation is passed on to the consumer

(seepricing policies), will increase delivered

price with distance from the production point,

so that consumers close to the production

point can purchase the commodity relatively

cheaply; that is, more cheaply than from alter-

native suppliers. The greater the elasticity of

demand, or the sensitivity of the consumer to

price, the greater the likelihood of local mon-

opoly. The area within which monopoly con-

trol exists (assuming that consumers buy from

the cheapest source) is bounded by a locus of

points where delivered price from the supplier

in question is equal to the price charged by a

competitor. In the second case, consumers

will tend to travel to the production point

which is closest in time, effort or cost. In this

case, too, the area of monopoly control will

be bounded by a locus of points of consumer

indifference as to whether to purchase from

one point to another.

Spatial monopoly can also arise from collu-

sion between otherwise competing firms, who

may agree to a ‘carve-up’ of the market among

themselves. As in other situations of spatial

monopoly, this will enable suppliers to raise

prices and exact above-normal profits in the

area over which they exert exclusive control.

Distance provides no absolute protection of a

market, however, for some consumers may

choose to purchase from high-cost sources or

to travel to more distant outlets, out of pre-

ference, ignorance or other behavioural

considerations.

There may be other strategies for protecting

space over which monopoly control is exerted.

These include the imposition of tariffs

and restriction on the use of means of

transportation: suppliers may use coercion to

prevent competitors from entering a particular

city to sell their goods, for example, as has

happened in the former Soviet Union since

the collapse ofsocialism.

In some instances, spatial monopoly may be

a case of so-called natural monopoly, where

the market in question is best served by a

single firm because of the nature of the

production process. Some public utilities

are of this kind; for example, local water

supply. Such public spatial monopoly may

be turned into private monopoly bypriva-

tization. dms

Suggested reading

Smith (1981).

spatial science The theoretical approach

associated with the quantitative revolu-

tionin Anglo-Americangeographyin the

1960s that privileged spatial analysis. During

this period many human geographers turned

from the integrated, descriptive and idio-

graphic analysis of specific places (i.e. the

traditional forms ofregional geography)to

the specialized, theoretically inflected and

nomotheticanalysis ofspatial structures;

that is, spatial science.epistemologically,

this stream of work, the so-called ‘New

Geography’ of the 1960s, is usually associated

with thephilosophiesoflogical empiricism

andlogical positivism, the prevailing norms

in the natural sciences and the emergent best

practice in other social sciences after 1945.

By aligning itself with ‘normal science’, and

in another sense with ‘extraordinary research’

and ‘scientific revolutions’ (see paradigm),

geography successfully sought to enhance its

academic status (Ad Hoc Committee on

Geography, 1965; see also Billinge, Gregory

and Martin, 1984b). While rarely describing

itself explicitly as positivist, it was presumed

that reliableexplanationscould be achieved

by constructing universal deductive causal

explanations whose accuracy could be

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SPATIAL MONOPOLY