The Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science (CSISS) was founded in 1999 with support from the National Science Foundation under its program to promote research infrastructure in the social and behavioral sciences. CSISS programs (1999–2013) recognized the growing significance of space, spatiality, location, and place in social science research.

The foundations of spatial analysis span many disciplines over many generations of researchers and practitioners. CSISS Classics provides summaries and illustrations of major contributions to spatial thinking in the social sciences. Primary emphasis is given to research before 1980, with an attempt to capture and acknowledge the repository of spatial thinking in the social sciences for the last few centuries. The summaries, along with key references, are intended as guides for those interested in exploring intellectual inheritance from previous generations.

Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science

Walter Christaller, Hierarchical Patterns of Urbanization. CSISS Classics