Spatial turn is an
intellectual movement
Intellectual history (also the history of ideas) is the study of the history of human thought and of intellectuals, people who conceptualize, discuss, write about, and concern themselves with ideas. The investigative premise of intellectual histor ...
that places emphasis on
place and
space in
social science and the
humanities.
It is closely linked with
quantitative studies of
history,
literature,
cartography, and other studies of
society. The movement has been influential in providing mass amounts of data for study of cultures, regions, and specific locations.
History
Academics such as
Ernst Cassirer and
Lewis Mumford helped to define a sense of "community" and "commons" in their studies, forming the first part of a "spatial turn."
The turn developed more comprehensively in the later twentieth century in French academic theories, such as those of
Michel Foucault
Paul-Michel Foucault (, ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic. Foucault's theories primarily address the relationship between power and knowledge, and how ...
.
Technologies have also played an important role in "turns." The introduction of
Geographic Information Systems
A geographic information system (GIS) is a type of database containing geographic data (that is, descriptions of phenomena for which location is relevant), combined with software tools for managing, analyzing, and visualizing those data. In a br ...
(GIS) has also been instrumental in quantifying data in the humanities for study by its place.
References
{{Authority control
Humanities