NODAL ACTIVITY
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 2290 ▶ |
| Object type | Human sciences, Methodology or model |
The specific processes that take place at some defined points within a network.
The concept has been proposed by the sociologist A. STINCHCOMBE (1968, Ch.VI). This author, considering commercial and economic activities, emphazises the existence of critical “connections spots”, where some specific operations, mostly related to transportation and communication, are done in a better and easier way.
Obviously, the need for efficiency in the displacement or any kind of commodities or knowledge within a system (existing or self-organizing) tends to favour nodal activity. The nodal activity model appears in the works on hexagonal space filling of W. CHRISTALLER (1933; 1937) and A. LÖSCH (1944; 1954).
It also permeates the works of the French historian F. BRAUDEL (1982), who shows the succesive nodes of commercial and financial activity in Western Europe from the 16th to the 18th century: Venice, Antwerp, Rotterdam, London, etc.
The concept is clearly related to the neural networks models.