attention on the part of economic geographers. Two pioneering theorists in this area
were Walter Christaller, who is credited with developingCentral Place Theory,
and August Losch, who, working two decades after the initial articulation of
Christaller’s theory, offered a modified version that placed more emphasis on the
behavioral patterns of consumers, but nevertheless maintained most of the assump-
tions Christaller had originally employed in regard to location. Both Christaller’s
original theory and Losch’s modifications continue to serve as the foundation for
thelocational analysisof retail activity and have made important contributions to
the fields of urban geography, regional science, and marketing analysis.
Several theoretical concepts in social and cultural geography stem directly from
the notion of location. One of these is the idea oflocale. A locale is somewhat sim-
ilar to a “place” in the minds of social and cultural geographers, but whereas place
to some scholars signifies just the physical attributes of a location (this is not the
approach of all geographers, by any means), the term “locale” offers a sense,
according to the British scholar Anthony Giddens, of “a setting for interaction,”
in which both the physical attributes of the place and its social functions combine
to present a platform for communication between those encountering it. A related,
but not identical, idea is that of “sense of place,” which can carry several connota-
tions for students of geography. As a subject of academic study, “sense of place”
emerged in the 1990s in the geographical literature, rooted in studies in behavioral
geography and spatial perception. Geographers have become increasingly aware
of the mental impact a particular location may have on visitors and residents,
and how this influence shapes the image and emotional connectivity that humans
hold toward specific places. The concept has particular relevance to studies in
social geography and the geography of tourism. Of special significance is the pro-
cess of how people construct a sense of place, why we do this, and ultimately how
this shapes the character of the place itself. Sense of place may be influenced by
gender, age, social class, or historical experience, but the basis of the perspective
lies in the concept of location.
Locational Analysis
A theory and methodology of spatial relationships, their flows and interrelation-
ships that served as the core of thequantitative revolution. The intellectual
approach of locational analysis did not arise with the new momentum of the revo-
lution in the late 1950s, but could be found in much earlier efforts to investigate
patterns manifest in space that appeared rational and explicable. Thevon Thunen
modelof agricultural land use is an example from more than a century earlier, and
Locational Analysis 211