ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some of the ways in which existing geographical research has usefully adopted conceptual frameworks that incorporate analyses of spatial and structural factors occurring across a variety of scales. It examines some of the key concepts used within networked approaches as a means of understanding the relevance of these interactions and how they might be usefully employed in the analysis of geographical problems. The chapter examines the development of various networked approaches within the social sciences, how these concepts have been used, and how a small group of [largely] economic geographers have sought to incorporate network approaches into geographical thought and analyses. Commentators such as Dear and Wolch (1987) and Moon (1990) have pointed to the utility of combining an analysis of both the structural and spatial context when examining problems of health and social welfare restructuring. Network analysis has been evident within geographical thinking and practice for well over three decades.
