Spatial Thought Research Articles

Periyar’s Spatial Thought: Region as Non-Brahmin Discursive Space

Even as historical studies of the conceptualisation of the region in Tamil Nadu invariably trace it back to the early Dravidian movement, ‘region’ is seen as peripheral to Periyar’s radical anti-caste thought in existing scholarship. This flows from both a limited focus on the spatial aspects of Periyar’s thought and a narrow conceptualisation of space itself. Diverging from the dominant physicalist view of space, this article views Periyar’s politics of space as a radical attempt to subvert the cultural logic of hegemonic nationalism that sustained caste and its privileges through modernity. Outlining Periyar’s criticism of the nation as a ‘dominated space’, it explores Periyar’s conception of Dravida Nadu as an ‘appropriated space’ that attempted to further the pursuit of self-respect as a rationally conceived regional utopia. By doing so, the article tries to contextualise Periyar’s spatial thought not as secondary to his anti-caste politics but as its fullest expression.

Dis-Unity of Humean Space

My aim in this paper is to explore some metaphysical and psychological implications of the (contentious) idealist interpretation of the belief in external objects ("bodies") Hume ascribes to us in the Treatise. More specifically, I will argue that the interpretation commits Hume to the claim that space is spatially fragmented, both synchronically and (even more so) diachronically, and renders Hume incapable of allowing for all the spatial thoughts we think we can have. But (perhaps surprisingly) it does not impugn Hume's view of causation.

Is Visual Creativity Embodied? Thinking Aloud While Performing the Creative Mental Synthesis Task.

Over time, the view that creativity is embodied has emerged. In order to explore if visual creativity is supported by embodied mechanisms, the simulation approach was used as a framework of reference. The idea that visual creativity relies on mental representations that implement motor processes was faced. Participants were instructed to think aloud while carrying out the Creative Mental Synthesis Task, which allows to form pre-inventive structures and interpret them according to a specific category. Two independent judges scored verbal protocols in terms of the number of motor, spatial, and visual thoughts reported during the pre-inventive and inventive phases, and also evaluated the final objects according to originality and appropriateness. Originality was predicted positively by inventive motor thoughts and by pre-inventive spatial thoughts, but negatively by inventive spatial thoughts; appropriateness was only predicted by inventive visual thoughts. These results suggest that actions for future object utilization were simulated while interpreting pre-inventive structures, increasing originality of objects. In addition, spatial transformations are useful to construct the pre-inventive structures, but not to interpret them. Yet, thinking of the pictorial details of the object is also essential to classify it in a given category. Limitations and future research directions are discussed.

Book Review: Topoi/Graphein: Mapping the Middle in Spatial Thought

Book Review: Topoi/Graphein: Mapping the Middle in Spatial Thought

A Study on J. Deleuze’s Spatial Thoughts Presented in Abracadabra by P. Decouflé

A Study on J. Deleuze’s Spatial Thoughts Presented in Abracadabra by P. Decouflé

Comparative Analysis of Brain Activity in Verbal and Spatial Thought in Healthy Subjects and Patients with Speech Disorders

We report here an analysis of specific brain activity measured by fMRI during solution of spatial and verbal tasks in 15 healthy subjects and nine patients with dysarthria or mild sensorimotor aphasia. In healthy subjects, activation of Brodmann area (BA) 19 and Broca’s area was more characteristic of verbal thought, while greater bilateral activation of the temporal-parietal-occipital zone, along with the left insula and visual fields 17 and 18 on the left, was specific for spatial thought. In patients with speech disorders, the distribution of areas specific to one task or another underwent significant changes, with non-activation of areas of brain activation characteristic of healthy subjects. Despite the absence of clinical signs of cognitive impairments, the mean verbal task solution time was significantly longer and the proportion of correct responses was smaller in patients than in healthy subjects.

Heidegger on Transforming the Circumspect Activity of Spatial Thought

This paper examines the relationship between Heidegger’s critique of educational comportment and his analysis of space in Being and Time. It posits that providing an educational corrective to the practice of tacit rational, described as ‘circumspection’ in Being and Time, would provide an opportunity to reorient Dasein toward clearer awareness of the spatial context. A phenomenological approach to education might be framed as a process that reorganizes how changes are anticipated by comported expectations. Addressing conditions of spatial comportment in education reveals that while models of learning illusorily claim to provide infinite opportunities, contingent upon mastery of delimited knowledge, a phenomenological approach to education begins by first delimiting illusions of possibility.

Do Euroregions Have a Future?

The main purpose of this paper is to make a substantial contribution to past, present and future debates about the “Europe of the Euroregions” by highlighting the challenges and difficulties involved in building mutual understanding across (national) borders. The idea of building mutual understanding that leads to reciprocal trust and consequently provides the very basis for strategy-making and policy delivery in a cross-border context is not a new one. Using the Austrian-Italian-Slovenian case, the paper demonstrates that some essential aspects are still not achieving the attention required when dealing with “multi-area Euroregions”. The added value of defining and analyzing the socially rooted and culturally embedded meaning of spatial planning as well as understanding the “region” phenomenon in different planning cultures and traditions and the translation of what this means in an EU sense is examined from this perspective. Building on the evidence drawn from the Austrian-Italian-Slovenian case, the paper explores a possible direction for building up effective long-lasting forms of cross-border cooperation throughout Europe through an innovative approach that is defined here as the Euroregional Planning Approach. In this context, it needs to be underlined that the Euroregional planning scale (Fabbro 2010) is not so much a reference to the formal concept of a Euroregion in the European Union but rather should be understood as a reference to the more complex planning practice that is required to realize stable forms of territorial cooperation between multi-area regions throughout Europe that are characterized by strong historical and cultural differences (Haselsberger 2010a). Therefore, this paper proposes two essential preconditions for and steps towards the successful overcoming of negative border effects and the subsequent establishment of “soft spaces” of interaction within the multi-area Euroregions of the 21st century. This perspective consists of two interrelated spatial thoughts: • The Euroregional Planning Avenue deals with the recognition and proper understanding of different planning cultures and traditions, which is considered an essential success criteria not only for the emergence, but also for the durability of multi-area Euroregions. • The Euroregional Political Avenue is grounded in the idea of establishing joint cooperation and governance platforms and equipping multi-area Euroregions with the institutional thickness required for strategy-making and policy delivery.

The Neural Organization of Spatial Thought and Language

The cognitive neuroscience of semantics has focused largely on object knowledge. By contrast, spatial semantics, especially as related to language, has received little attention. Spatial thought and language gives our semantic system a rich texture by introducing relational thinking and greater levels of abstraction than is evoked by object semantics. This article describes the neural instantiation of spatial thought and language based on imaging and lesion studies. We underscore two functional-anatomical organizational principles. First, perceptual and conceptual representations have a parallel organizational structure within the nervous system. Lateral temporal cortices are important for manners of motion, action representations, and action verbs. More dorsal regions are important for paths of motion, locative representations, and prepositions. Second, posterior perceptual representations serve as points of entry for more anterior and centripetally located peri-Sylvian conceptual and linguistic representations.

The mind's staircase: exploring the conceptual underpinnings of children's thought and knowledge

Contents: Part I:Introduction. R. Case, General and Specific Views of the Mind, its Structure, and its Development. R. Case, A Neo-Piagetian Approach to the Issue of Cognitive Generality and Specificity. R. Case, Advantages and Limitations of the Neo-Piagetian Position. Part II:The Role of Central Conceptual Structures in the Development of Children's Logico-Mathematical Thought. Z. Marini, Synchrony and Asynchrony in the Development of Children's Scientific Reasoning. S. Griffin, R. Case, R. Sandieson, Synchrony and Asynchrony in the Acquisition of Children's Everyday Mathematical Knowledge. A.M. Capodilupo, A Neo-Structural Analysis of Children's Response to Instruction in the Sight-Reading of Musical Notation. R. Case, R. Sandieson, Testing for the Presence of a Central Quantative Structure: Use of the Transfer Paradigm. Part III:The Role of Central Conceptual Structures in the Development of Children's Social and Emotional Thought. J. Goldberg-Reitman, Young Girls' Conception of Their Mothers' Role: A Neo- Structural Analysis. M. Bruchkowsky, The Development of Empathic Cognition in Middle and Early Childhood. A. McKeough, A Neo-Structural Analysis of Children's Narrative and its Development. S. Griffin, Young Children's Awareness of Their Inner World: A Neo-Structural Analysis of the Development of Intrapersonal Intelligence. A. McKeough, Testing for the Presence of a Central Social Structure: Use of the Transfer Paradigm. Part IV:The Role of Central Conceptual Structures in the Development of Children's Spatial Thought. S. Dennis, Stage and Structure in the Development of Children's Spatial Representations. D.T. Reid, Horizontal and Vertical Structure: Stages and Substages in Children's Motor Development. Part V:Cross-Domain Synchrony and Asynchrony in the Acquisition of Different Central Conceptual Structures. R. Case, S. Griffin, A. McKeough, Y. Okamoto, Parallels in the Development of Children's Social, Numerical, and Spatial Thought. J. Crammond, Analyzing the Basic Cognitive-Developmental Processes of Children with Specific Types of Learning Disability. M. Porath, Stage and Structure in the Development of Children with Various Types of Giftedness. T.A. Fiati, Cross-Cultural Variation in the Structure of Children's Thought. Part VI:Conclusion. R. Case, The Mind and its Modules: Toward a Multi-Level View of the Development of Human Intelligence.

Development Directions and Solved Problems in Industrial Geography

The main concern of this paper is to provide a brief introduction to some development directions and solved problems in industrial geography. The author briefly describes and evaluates the contribution of individual schools of spatial thoughts, and points out the current state of research in the world's industrial geography according to the materials of the Commission on Industrial Change.