СОЦІАЛЬНИЙ ПРОСТІР ЯК ОБ’ЄКТ ГЕОГРАФІЧНИХ ДОСЛІДЖЕНЬ ТА РОЛЬ КОМУНІКАЦІЙ У ЙОГО КОНСТРУЮВАННІ

Abstract

The article attempts to analyze the concept of “social space” from the standpoint of geography. Geographers understand space mainly as a “tabula rasa” on which human society functions and develops. However, the requirements of today require a deeper understanding of the essence of human, the study of internal motives of human activity. The category “social space” is used for this purpose. The aim of the study is to systematize scientific interpretations of the concept of “social space”, to determine its properties and characteristics in Ukrainian and foreign scientific literature. The main task is to determine the role of communications in the formation and functioning of social space. Geographers understand social space primarily as a part of geographical space; nonlinear and multidimensional space of society development, social events, social systems and their components; this is an anthroposphere which is supplemented by a “virtual” component of the inner world of human. Society creates a social space by its own way of life. It manifests itself through the triad: spatial practices - representations of space - spaces of representation. The whole concept of the production of social space is filled with communications and networks through which these communications take place. Humanity and its social space is a product of the communications that exist in it. Communication networks are the basis of the production and functioning of social space. To denote the processes of subjective transformation of social space and time, the following terms are used: time-space compression, space-time convergence, time-space distanciation, time-space expansion, friction of distance, distance decay. One of the main “tools” of space compression is the transportation network, and in recent decades, information and communication networks. The question of the relationship between the concepts of “social space” and “geographical space” is relevant for geography. Geographical space contains elements of the social. At the same time, the majority of social processes have their own spatial expression. It is impossible to draw clear boundaries between geographical and social spaces. Their common construct “socio-geographical space” is increasingly used.