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Spatial Inequalities (spatial + inequality)
Selected AbstractsGATED COMMUNITIES AND SPATIAL INEQUALITYJOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS, Issue 2 2007ELENA VESSELINOV ABSTRACT:,In this article we analyze gated communities as a nexus of social and spatial relations within the context of urban inequality. We apply Tickamyer's (2000) sociological framework for incorporating space into the study of inequality, which allows us to substantiate the arguments that the process of gating increases urban inequality. The contributions of this article are three: (1) We generate a new systematic theoretical approach toward the study of gated communities, which we consider as middle range theory; (2) We argue that gated communities reproduce the existing levels of social stratification and that they also define a new, permanent differentiation order in the spatial organization of cities in the United States (in this respect we also arrive at six hypotheses, which can be tested in future research); (3) We introduce the term "gating machine," where the combination of the interests and actions of local governments, real estate developers, the media, and consumers suggest that prevailing structural conditions assure the future proliferation of gated communities. [source] Chinese Spatial Inequalities and Spatial PoliciesGEOGRAPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 8 2010Michael Dunford In the last fifty years Chinese spatial inequalities have expanded in phases of industrial expansion and contracted in phases favourable to agriculture. Since 1985 real per capita disposable income and real per capita expenditure have increased rapidly in all parts of China. The increases were however much greater (i) in areas on the east coast than in the centre, northeast and west creating widening macro-territorial inequalities, (ii) in some provinces rather than others increasing inter-provincial inequalities and (iii) in urban areas rather than rural areas. These imbalances have seen the adoption of a succession of policies designed initially to promote a more equilibrated model of co-ordinated national development and more recently a more sustainable and more equitable development path consistent with the more recent emphasis on the goal of harmonious development. This paper examines the evolution and impact of these trends in inequality and policy initiatives paying attention to a variety of geographical scales. [source] Methods to Test the Spatial Mismatch HypothesisECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, Issue 4 2005Donald S. Houston Abstract: The spatial mismatch hypothesis postulates that employment deconcentration within U.S. metropolitan areas goes some way toward explaining higher unemployment and lower wages among ethnic minority groups, since these groups are more likely to reside in central-city areas. However, little consensus has emerged on the importance of spatial mismatch in explaining disadvantage in the labor market. This article argues that conflicting evidence is the result of the variety of methods that have been used to test the spatial mismatch hypothesis. Moreover, it draws attention to a number of hitherto uncovered flaws in some of these methods that introduce systematic biases against finding evidence in support of the hypothesis. In light of these flaws, favored methods for future research are highlighted. Drawing on evidence from British conurbations that display similar spatial inequalities to U.S. metropolitan areas despite much smaller ethnic minority populations, the article contends that race does not lie at the heart of the spatial mismatch problem. Three areas in which the spatial mismatch hypothesis should be reconceptualized are identified: first, its emphasis should be on spatial, not racial, inequalities; second, it needs to differentiate between residential immobility and residential segregation, which are quite different; and third, it needs to recognize that the extent and the effect of spatial mismatch are distinct and should be measured separately. [source] Chinese Spatial Inequalities and Spatial PoliciesGEOGRAPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 8 2010Michael Dunford In the last fifty years Chinese spatial inequalities have expanded in phases of industrial expansion and contracted in phases favourable to agriculture. Since 1985 real per capita disposable income and real per capita expenditure have increased rapidly in all parts of China. The increases were however much greater (i) in areas on the east coast than in the centre, northeast and west creating widening macro-territorial inequalities, (ii) in some provinces rather than others increasing inter-provincial inequalities and (iii) in urban areas rather than rural areas. These imbalances have seen the adoption of a succession of policies designed initially to promote a more equilibrated model of co-ordinated national development and more recently a more sustainable and more equitable development path consistent with the more recent emphasis on the goal of harmonious development. This paper examines the evolution and impact of these trends in inequality and policy initiatives paying attention to a variety of geographical scales. [source] Contingent Chicago: Restructuring the Spaces of Temporary LaborINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2001Jamie Peck Hiring-halls, specializing in the placement of day-laborers in temporary jobs, have in recent years been proliferating along major transport arteries in Chicago's low-income neighborhoods. This article examines the phenomenon of low-wage temporary work in Chicago from the perspective of the principal institutional actors in these highly ,flexibilized' or ,contingent' labor markets , the ,temp' agencies. Particular emphasis is placed on the labor-market effects of temp-agency strategies, both in respect to patterns of labor segmentation and in terms of the spatial (re)constitution of urban job markets. It is suggested that temp agencies are actively engaged in both the exploitation and facilitation of contingent labor-market conditions. In this sense, they are assuming important new roles as privatized ,labor-market intermediaries', with apparently deleterious effects for job security and social segregation in the lower reaches of urban labor markets. Their strategies can also be related to the social and geographic restructuring of these job markets, because the growth and polarization of temp employment has been associated with a ,hardening', and indeed ,stretching', of extant ethnic, gender and spatial inequalities. Des bureaux d'embauche, spécialisés dans le placement de journaliers sur des postes temporaires, ont récemment proliféré le long des grands axes de transport dans les quartiers défavorisés de Chicago. Cet article étudie le phénomène du travail temporaire à faible revenu dans cette ville, et ce, du point de vue des principaux acteurs institutionnels sur ces marchés du travail hautement ,flexibilisés' ou ,aléatoires': les agences de travail temporaire. Il insiste sur les conséquences des stratégies de ces agences pour le marché de l'emploi, à la fois au niveau des schémas de segmentation du travail et en termes de (re)constitution spatiale des marchés du travail urbains. Aussi peut-on suggérer que ces agences sont activement impliquées dans l'exploitation et la facilitation des conditions aléatoires du marché du travail. En ce sens, elles jouent un rôle important et nouveau comme ,intermédiaires du marché du travail' privatisés, avec des effets apparemment néfastes pour la sécurité de l'emploi et la ségrégation sociale dans les circuits inférieurs des marchés urbains. Leurs stratégies peuvent aussi être liées à la restructuration sociale et géographique de ces marchés, la croissance et la polarisation de l'emploi temporaire ayant ètè associées à un ,durcissement', et assurément à une ,extension', des inégalités existantes au plan ethnique, spatial et des sexes. [source] The development and evaluation of a telepsychiatry service for prisonersJOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRIC & MENTAL HEALTH NURSING, Issue 4 2004S. LEONARD bsc rn (mm) dip ndip b&fdip ptsdcounselling The introduction of increasingly sophisticated telecommunication systems seems to offer opportunities to respond to some of the key problems around structural and spatial inequalities in access to health care. There is evidence which suggests that serious mental health problems are common among prisoners and psychiatric comorbidity is the norm. Many prisoners have complex mental health needs, but more often than not these remain unaddressed. Telepsychiatry is one strategy to improve the accessibility and quality of mental health care in the prison setting. This paper firstly reviews the current prison health care system and then describes a research study which is focused on the development and evaluation of a telepsychiatry service for prisoners. This study has investigated what is lost or gained in a psychiatric assessment when it is conducted via telepsychiatry. The researcher compared the inter-rater reliability between two raters interviewing 80 participants in an observer/interviewer split configuration in telepsychiatry and same room settings. The measure used was the Comprehensive Psychopathology Rating Scale. Prisoners and prison staff also took part in semi-structured interviews which focused on their satisfaction and acceptability of the telepsychiatry service. A cost comparison of the telepsychiatry service with the existing visiting service was conducted. This paper outlines the study design and focuses on the potential impact that telepsychiatry may have upon the practice setting. [source] Towards the Spatial Patterns of Sectoral Adjustments to Trade Liberalisation: The Case of NAFTA in MexicoGROWTH AND CHANGE, Issue 4 2007BENJAMIN FABER ABSTRACT A recent string of "new economic geography" (NEG) models has set focus on the impacts of trade liberalisation on the intra-national distribution of economic activity. What the existing contributions have in common is a basic two-sector assumption (agriculture/manufacturing) and a resulting focus on the question of whether liberalisation leads to a greater concentration of aggregate manufacturing activity. Reconsidering these models from a multi-sectoral perspective, the aim is to allow for sectoral differences in the spatial adjustments to liberalisation. This introduces a conceptual nexus between comparative advantage (CA)-type sectoral recomposition effects of trade and NEG-type spatial adjustments. In the analysis of Mexican manufacturing location 1993,2003, incipient empirical evidence is found in favour of the hypothesis that sectors characterised by a revealed comparative advantage and/or cross-border intermediate supplies grow faster in regions with good foreign market access, whereas import competing ones gain in relative terms in regions with higher "natural protection" from poor market access. The relevancy of the proposed NEG/CA framework concerns both efficiency and equity objectives of trade adjustment policies, and opens a new perspective on the long-run effects of trade on spatial inequality. [source] East-Central Europe's changing energy landscapes: a place for geographyAREA, Issue 4 2009Stefan Bouzarovski Energy developments in the post-Communist states of Eastern and Central Europe (ECE) have a major impact on global energy security and sustainability, thanks to this region's key geographical position between the energy-exporting states of the former Soviet Union, on the one hand, and the energy-importing states of Western and Southern Europe, on the other. At the same time, post-socialist reforms of energy industries in this region provide unique insights into the complex relations of power, economic transformation and spatial inequality that govern energy production and consumption. This paper therefore aims to provide an initial look at some of the theoretical and policy issues that underpin the emergent ,geographies' of energy reform in ECE, as well as their embeddedness in relations of power stemming from organisational, infrastructural and economic inequalities in the region. It employs an analysis of local news reports, policy papers and statistical data to examine the intricate institutional networks and spatial formations that have governed the energy transformation process. In broader terms, the paper aims to emphasise the important role that human geography can play in making sense of the territorial differences and frictions that have emerged during the post-socialist reform process, while challenging the idea of a ,neat' neoliberal transition from a centrally planned to a market-based mode of energy regulation. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||