AAG2023: Session on Measuring Spatial/Urban Networks

AAG 2023 Call for Abstracts

March 23-27, 2023 in Denver, CO

Session on MEASURING SPATIAL AND URBAN NETWORKS

Organizers: Zachary Neal (Michigan State University), Ben Derudder (KU Leuven), Michiel van Meeteren (Utrecht University)

Studying spatial and urban networks has become increasingly common in geography, and will be highlighted in an upcoming special issue of the Annals of the AAG. However, measuring these networks is often not straightforward, raising both conceptual and methodological issues. Conceptually, researchers must decide how to define the nodes, how to bound the nodes, how to conceptualize the edges, etc. Methodologically, they must also decide how to operationalize the edges, collect the data, validate the edge weights, etc. Often these issues are context-dependent, and informed by theory, methodological best practices, and practical feasibility. This session will explore the conceptual and methodological issues that arise when measuring spatial and urban networks in a range of contexts, seeking to identify common solutions and strategies.

We welcome abstracts that address the measurement of spatial and urban networks in a variety of ways, including:

- Describing a specific measurement strategy 

To be inclusive and capture the breadth of spatial networks, we welcome submissions that measure networks:

- Using quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods

- At any scale (local, national, global, etc.)

- With any type of node (people, cities, road intersections, etc.)

- In any substantive area (economic, transportation, environment, etc.)

- To be presented in-person or virtually

This session defines a "network" as a set of nodes connected by a set of edges, which can be represented mathematically as a graph or matrix, and which represent or have locations in space. For the sake of focus, we will prioritize abstracts adopting this perspective over abstracts adopting other conceptions of a network (e.g., actor-network, neural network).

Interested participants should send a title and an abstract to Zachary Neal (zpneal@msu.edu) no later than November 10. Contributors of abstracts selected for inclusion in the session will be notified by November 15, and will be asked to provide their registration code (PIN). For more details, please visit https://www.aag.org/events/aag2023/.