Space, according to Sayer (1985), is constituted by objects: it is, for example, the resistance offered by the surfaces over which objects are transported, and not the distance involved, that is important to the so-called effects of spatial separation. Space, however, is not reducible to the objects making it up: relative location matters in the sense that juxtaposition facilitates the realization of causal powers or susceptibilities. It is not possible to abstract space from society for further examination. Is it, however, possible to abstract society from space and have an aspatial social science? To the extent that it is ’abstract’ research we are interested in rather than the ’concrete’ investigation of the effects of the spatial juxtaposition of social objects (“the difference that space makes”), Sayer clearly thinks it is. For abstract theory need only consider space insofar as necessary properties of objects have to do with space, and, according to Sayer, this doesn’t amount to very much. The result is that abstract theory does not allow us to say much about spatial form. It follows that the geographical, including (we presume) the local, can only be properly investigated by concrete analyses.