SPACE: moving beyond spatial science to engage Australian students with Asian geography

Space is one of the more important geographical ideas. It is a highly complex term that is used and understood in a variety of ways (Crang and Thrift, 2000, 1). It is most commonly thought of as a great expanse extending in all directions, a vast canvas on which geographers work to describe the earth, and an expanse that extends from personal space to the global. Within this vast space, or over portions of it, all material objects are located. This is the space of explorers, map makers, fieldstudy, and of Geographical Information System analysis. This is the patchwork quilt of landscapes, remotely-sensed city lights shimmering in the evening sky and the ever more complex communication networks that intertwine global space. This is the geographer's palette where they work on the assumption that where things are located in space has some significance.