Contextualizing the Diorama Concept in the Development of Time-Geography

Abstract

In its early days, Hägerstrand's time-geography met critique for being physicalistic and not sufficiently considering social aspects. In his article “Diorama, path and project”, Hägerstrand shows that the social dimension is embedded in time-geography and underlines its ecological ambitions by introducing the “diorama” concept. This reflective article follows the development of the time-geographic concepts “path” and “project”, both deepening the social dimension. The diorama concept was introduced to contextualize situations wherein humans, animals, plants and things coexist in the time–space, thereby increasing the understanding of how humans and individuals from other populations depend on each other, and how their interaction influence the ecological outcome. Today, the social dimension is integrated in time-geography. The ecological view deepened in Hägerstrand's research over time and he found that the diorama concept insufficiently captured the time dimension and suggested the concepts “pocket of local order” and “processual landscape”, both setting the diorama in motion.