The message of the introduction to this book was straightforward: geography matters to all of the disciplines in the social sciences. Social processes necessarily take place in geographical space and in some relation to nature, and this carries a series of implications for all explanations of social activity. Neither sociologists nor economists, it should be said, are opposed to the argument that space and nature have a part to play in social explanation; they are not unaware that social activity occurs in space or that nature impinges upon social action. It is not part of our argument that the social science disciplines today are simply blind to these features of the social world; rather, it is that they have failed to conceive the extent to which space and nature are integral to an understanding of social activity and social change.

Space is not simply a surface upon which changes, say, in the structure of the British economy are played out. Changes within the structure of economic production involve the geographical reorganisation of labour and capital; and, in turn, the changing geography of economic activity affects the shape and composition of the workforce and throws up new cultural patterns and political configurations. Changes in the technology of production are central to this process of geographical and social reorganization – changes which involve a rearrangement and control of natural forces to achieve profitable and competitive conditions of production.