My Journey into Relational Space: Compression, Networks, and Topologies

This chapter explores the multiple facets and implications of relational space. Relying in part on my own intellectual journey as an exploratory device, it charts the origins of relative and relational space and the discoveries and innovations that led to their rise, including non-Euclidean geometry and relativity theory, and the rise of socially constructed relational space. It then examines time-space compression, the machine that folds spaces like origami. Third, it considers the relational spaces of post-structuralism, notably in the forms of the space of flows and actor-network theory. The fourth part turns to topology, the reigning metaphor for understanding relational space, and related metaphors such as origami and wormholes. The conclusion holds that relational space opens up new geographical imaginations for geography’s self-discovery.