Frank M. Howell, Jeremy R. Porter, and Stephen A. Matthews (eds.) Recapturing Space: New Middle-Range Theory in Spatial Demography Springer, 2016. 379 p. $179.00.

Abstract

This edited volume, the first in Springer's Spatial Demography series, identifies priorities and challenges in the field of spatial demography. The authors note the rapid increase in the application of spatial concepts and methods in demography during the past few decades, due in large part to the wealth of geocoded data at fine resolution. The editors lament the weak theory and confused conceptualization that they believe characterize much of the mechanical applications of spatial tools in demography. Accordingly, the first goal of this volume is to stimulate more informative theory and more rigorous employment of spatial concepts. Of special interest to the editors is “middle-range theory,” a term adopted from the sociologist Robert Merton. The first part of the volume—“Theory, concepts, and measures”—contains five chapters that are largely theoretical and conceptual. Each contains provocative and, for readers not familiar with the recent spatial literature, original arguments about how to productively incorporate space (or place) in demographic research. The second part—“Research practice in spatial demography”—contains two chapters on contested issues in the recent empirical literature. The bulk of the volume is the third part—“Middle range theory in application”—which consists of eight empirical studies. The topics investigated are both demographic (e.g., population growth, pregnancy outcome) and non-demographic (voter turnout, civic participation). These studies are unusually self-conscious about theory and concepts, and most of them contain technically sophisticated analysis. Most of these chapters also give attention to variation across both space and time; indeed the interplay of spatial and temporal variation is a preoccupation of the more theoretical chapters as well. The editors make no pretense that this volume can serve as an up-to-date introduction to spatial demography, but anyone who reads it from beginning to end will be exposed to much of the core theory as well as a sampling of contemporary tools.—J.C.