Suchan, Trudy Pennsylvania State University Categories are necessary for making sense of the everyday world of the individual for purposes of spatial analysis and mapping. This doctoral dissertation research will focus on the internal nature of a category for which data are often aggregated, analyzed and mapped-rural. The case study explores, through data collected by in-depth interviews, common mental categorizations of rural, and compares these to the formalized conceptions that underlie maps about rural issues. Informal and formal definitions are examined in terms of prototype category theory. Implications of identified differences are discussed, particularly when the formal categories are the basis of information presented to the public.
