Theoretical-methodological framework for the study of the spatial structure of the human settlement system at a provincial scale in Cuba

Abstract

This article proposes a theoretical-methodological design to address the spatial structures exhibited by the human settlement system in the provincial territories of Cuba. It is a proposal based on the materialist-systemic conception frequently attributed to geographic space, where it has been possible to organize several analytical levels, empirical cuts, variables, statistics and indispensable indicators that will allow deciphering features, transformations and permanence in an updated approach to this object. The most outstanding contributions are achieved by the integration of a whole set of constituents that need to be necessarily analyzed, as well as the incorporation of new lines of reflection from the impact of communication technologies that induce a new logic of geographical organization. In this, the principlethat brings together the different geographical scales was instrumental, as well as the adaptation of the modern approach to relationships in networks, in order to achieve a theoretical-methodological modeling that can be endorsed both by their similarities and their differences, in a search of singularities, generalities and universals that, on this subject, are constantly updated and interpreted today in the geographical, urban and territorial planning thinking of almost all societies in the world.