Identifying the Individualist / Collectivist Cultural Dimension in Space

Abstract

Space reflects the culture of its respective society. By analyzing configurational patterns of space, the discipline of spatial analysis attempts to reveal the underlying socio-cultural implication within space. In this paper, however, spatial analysis is criticized as being superficial, as the cultural studies discipline sets out several topics that currently cannot be properly addressed by spatial analysis. One major topic is the Individualism-Collectivism cultural dimension. This study provides insight on how the IND-COL dimension can be addressed through spatial analysis. The IND-COL dimension is reinterpreted as the degree of differentiation between inhabitants and strangers, where the differentiating factor is ′familiarity′ obtained through the differing wayfinding behavior within a spatial configuration. Assuming that an individualist space displays a configurational pattern that hardly differentiates spatial familiarity between inhabitants and strangers, while a collectivist space displays a larger difference between the two groups, spatial familiarity of inhabitants and strangers are quantified as the integration synergy index and ERAM synergy index, respectively. It is then the degree of difference between the two synergy indexes that identifies the IND-COL dimension of a spatial configuration. To verify this conceptual framework, comparative analysis on single-family houses and multi-family apartments, housing types with differing cultural backgrounds, was conducted.