For many spatial processes, there is a natural need to find out the point of origin on the basis of the available scatter of observations; think, for instance, of finding out the home base of a criminal given the actual distribution of crime scenes, or the outbreak source of an epidemics. In this article, we build on the topological weighted centroid (TWC) methodology that has been applied in previous research to the reconstruction of space syntax problems, for example, of problems where all relevant entities are of spatial nature so that the relationships between them are inherently spatial and need to be properly reconstructed. In this article, we take this methodology to a new standard by tackling the new and challenging task of analyzing space semantics problems, where entities are characterized by properties of a nonspatial nature and must therefore be properly spatialized. We apply the space semantics version of the TWC methodology to a particularly hard problem: the reconstruction of global political and economic relationships on the basis of a small-dimensional qualitative dataset. The combination of a small set of spatial and nonspatial sources of information allows us to elucidate some intriguing and counterintuitive properties of the inherent global economic order and, in particular, to highlight its long-term structural features, which interestingly point toward the idea of longue durée developed by the distinguished French historian Fernand Braudel.

Analyzing the Semantics of Point Spaces through the Topological Weighted Centroid and Other Mathematical Quantities: The Hidden Geometry of the Global Economic Order

Sacco P.;
2015-01-01

Abstract

For many spatial processes, there is a natural need to find out the point of origin on the basis of the available scatter of observations; think, for instance, of finding out the home base of a criminal given the actual distribution of crime scenes, or the outbreak source of an epidemics. In this article, we build on the topological weighted centroid (TWC) methodology that has been applied in previous research to the reconstruction of space syntax problems, for example, of problems where all relevant entities are of spatial nature so that the relationships between them are inherently spatial and need to be properly reconstructed. In this article, we take this methodology to a new standard by tackling the new and challenging task of analyzing space semantics problems, where entities are characterized by properties of a nonspatial nature and must therefore be properly spatialized. We apply the space semantics version of the TWC methodology to a particularly hard problem: the reconstruction of global political and economic relationships on the basis of a small-dimensional qualitative dataset. The combination of a small set of spatial and nonspatial sources of information allows us to elucidate some intriguing and counterintuitive properties of the inherent global economic order and, in particular, to highlight its long-term structural features, which interestingly point toward the idea of longue durée developed by the distinguished French historian Fernand Braudel.
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
Computational Intelligence 2015.pdf

Solo gestori archivio

Descrizione: Original Article
Tipologia: PDF editoriale
Dimensione 5.5 MB
Formato Adobe PDF
5.5 MB Adobe PDF   Visualizza/Apri   Richiedi una copia

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11564/774073
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 12
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 12
social impact