Reappraisal of the ' Center and Periphery ' Concept by RATZEL and Contemporary Geography

Abstract

The ' center and periphery ' concept appeared anywhere in RATZEL's works. Cultural as well as pheical phernomena were viewed by him from the standpoint of 'center and periphery'. Convincing explanations were thus given to shorelines, snowlines, cities, cultures, national boundaries, etc.
In place of the hitherto morphological observation, this way of viewing, which is a functional observation, lead RATZEL to the development of a new discipline of study.
The ' center and periphery ' observation was kept rather in the background in RATZEL. Instead, three concpts of ' space ', ' movement ' and ' location ' were placed in the foreground as basic concepts on which RATZEL's thoughts and ideas were constructed. It can be conceived, however, that the three concepts are in fact welded into one system by way of the center and periphery ' observation.
Although RATZEL himself does not seem to have been well conscious of it, the center and periphery' observation has two view-angles, that is, 1) differentiation from center to periphery, and 2) diffusion of energy from center to periphery. The former is to a morphological observation as the latter is to a functional observation.
It is known that such view-angles, which are well demonstrated in the RATZEL's ' movement theory', can be traced to the ' migration theory' of M. WAGNER, a biologist. In contrast to DARWIN, who advocated progressive evolution, WAGNER put an emphasis upon spatial differentiation. When RATZEL made a morphological observation, he focussed on the differentiation, but when his attention was directed toward a mechanism, he stressed the diffusion.
The RATZEL's diffusionistic view in discussing physical phenomena and anthropogenic cultural traits has no doubt a great influence upon contemporary geographers. This also suggests that it is not relevant to. think RATZEL was under an influence of DARWIN.
With full of affluent touches to describe abundant, variegated facts and materials, the RATZEL's work manifest that he was unable to control his overflowing thoughts and ideas. He may as well have been an artist who turned to be a scientist. The orderly arrangement by logic seems to have fallen short of completeness.
The present article clarifies that the unifying artery of the three concepts of space ', movement ' and location ' is by itself the center and periphery ' model. It also illustrates the differentiation and diffusion ' concept basically support RATZEL and that it appears a central concept again in contemporary geography.