INTEGRATING SPACE AND SOCIETY: GEOSOCIOLOGY AS AN ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK FOR DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH AND POLICY

The longstanding separation of ‘space-blind’ sociology and ‘socially detached’ geography has constrained understanding of how spatial organization shapes social inequality, institutional accessibility, and development outcomes. While sociology has traditionally emphasized power, institutions, and social relations with limited attention to spatial processes, geography has excelled in mapping spatial patterns. However, it has often provided limited explanations of the social mechanisms underlying them. This paper addresses this disciplinary divide by advancing Geosociology as an integrative and operational analytical framework that conceptualizes geographic space as a structural determinant of social opportunity, institutional distribution, and territorial development. Drawing on classical sociology, critical spatial theory, political economy, and spatial justice, the paper adapts the concept of the Geography of Neglect to explain how uneven distributions of institutions, infrastructure, and public investment generate cumulative territorial disadvantage. Beyond theoretical synthesis, the study operationalizes Geosociology through a mathematical framework that integrates established spatial analytical methods—including Geographic Information Systems (GIS), distance-decay modelling, Moran's I, and spatial econometric models—with original Geosociological measures: the Institutional Distribution Index (IDI), Scale–Sociality Nexus Index (SSNI), Geography of Neglect Index (GNI), and the Geosociological Development Model (GDM). Together, these provide measurable and empirically testable tools for assessing institutional accessibility, socio-spatial integration, territorial neglect, and their influence on development outcomes. Illustrative evidence from Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa demonstrates the applicability of the framework across healthcare, education, urban development, migration, and environmental vulnerability. The paper argues that Geosociology shifts development research beyond identifying where inequalities occur to explaining why they persist and how they can be systematically addressed. By integrating social theory, spatial analytics, and mathematical modelling within a unified methodological framework, the study establishes Geosociology as a theoretically grounded, operationally measurable, and empirically testable approach for advancing spatial justice, evidence-based policy, and sustainable territorial development.