New features of social inequality: Edward Soya’s concept of postmodernist urbanization

Abstract

The article examines the concept of urbanization of the American researcher Edward Soja, who notes the transition from metropolis to postmetropolis, thereby fixing the emergence of postmodern urban entities. He argues the need to develop a new urban research methodology, since the models of the Chicago school are outdated. They describe monocentric cities, and in the modern world we are dealing with polycentric agglomerations. Soya demonstrates that the social problems of cities are beginning to spread to the suburbs, which are no longer prosperous areas. The main reasons for the new stage of urbanization are highlighted: globalization, economic restructuring and the development of information and communication technologies. Six modern discourses related to the design and functioning of the post-metropolis are analyzed in detail. The main problems of postmetropolis are considered: inequality, social injustice, uneven distribution of social benefits, exclusion, rising crime, environmental degradation, etc. Particular attention is paid to the transformation of suburbs, which leads to a change in spatial inequality and the emergence of new forms of it.