Location Theory

Location theory refers to a conceptual perspective widely used in economic geography during the 1950s and 1960s, primarily during the reign of the philosophy of logical positivism. Location theory exemplified geography as a spatial science, primarily concerned about abstract laws applicable under all circumstances.

Location theories in various forms shared a common focus on the centrality of models as bridges between the empirical world and the theoretical world of prediction and explanation. Models distill the essence of the world, revealing causal properties via simplification. A good model is simple enough to be understood by its users, representative enough to be used in a wide variety of circumstances, and complex enough to capture the essence of the phenomenon under investigation. Typically, models were developed, tested, and applied ...