This paper attempts to provide a general perspective on the potentialities and limitations of research into individual activity patterns. The most common types of activity study and data-collecting device are briefly described, and problems of data collection and analysis are outlined. The main focus is on the value of ‘space-time budgets’ in household surveys, assessed with respect to two contrasting aims: (1) deriving ‘behavioural’ postulates on which geographic theories of spatial structure might be based, and (2) planning spatial structures to suit the behaviour patterns and aspirations of different types of individuals and households. Activities occur in a ‘space-time’ continuum’, and there are temporal regularities inherent in spatial patterns. It is argued that studying activity patterns in terms of ‘space-time locations’ can throw light on pressing socio-spatial problems.
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