ABSTRACT

Tracing the history of the ideas of space and place is a first step to elucidating their ethnographic significance within an interdisciplinary field made up of scholarly traditions that employ the terms in distinctive ways. It is difficult to examine their contemporary meanings or to consider their potential for generating new insights without reviewing previous conventions and disciplinary practices. Familiarity with different definitions and usage is indispensable because these complex concepts have a long and often ambiguous history in philosophy, social sciences and architecture and design.