Patterns Of Uneven Development Research Articles

Spatial Competition and Unevenness in Global Capitalism: Labor, Nature, and the Seesaw of Capital

Critical studies of globalization seek to unmask how this stage of capitalist history reshapes patterns of uneven development around the world. While globalization can reproduce long-standing patterns of North–South unequal exchange, in this paper, I focus on how capital mobility and competition contribute to uneven development. Drawing primarily on Neil Smith’s theory of uneven development, I offer a theoretical discussion of how capital’s capacity to seesaw from place to place in its search for higher profits—and the spatial competition between places that this capacity triggers—constitutes a source of unevenness. Regions, nations, and localities adapt to capital’s seesaw by offering, among others, cheaper labor and lower environmental regulation costs. While this can work for a time, advantages are either eroded by the unfolding contradictions of capitalism or competed away by the emergence of new areas. In the last section, I offer a tentative illustration of this argument with a brief examination of pollution havens and Special Economic Zones.

Ecologically unequal exchange and uneven development patterns along global value chains

This paper relates participation in global value chains (GVCs) to development patterns and ecologically unequal exchange (EUE). We conduct a principal components analysis and a clustering analysis along six dimensions (GVC participation, GVC value capture, investment, socioeconomic development, domestic environmental impact and international environmental balance) for 133 countries between 1995 and 2015. We find three social, ecological, productive development and GVC insertion patterns: “curse of GVC marginalization”, “ecologically perverse upgrading” and “reproduction of the core”. While our results confirm the asymmetry in ecological degradation between high-income and low-income economies shown by EUE, it refines and nuances these findings. We argue that environmentalasymmetries are driven in large part by differences in how countries articulate within GVCs. Countries with a higher capacity to capture value from GVC participation (“reproduction of the core”) are able to displace environmental impacts to countries facing a trade-off between upgrading in GVCs and ecological degradation (“ecologically perverse upgrading”). Marginalization from GVCs, mitigates the impact of ecologically unequal exchange but constitutes a barrier to socio-economic benefits. Moreover, the lack of diffusion of more ecologically-efficient processes through GVCs has a negative impact on domestic ecological degradation for countries of the “curse of GVC marginalization” group.

An inquiry into urban carrying capacity of sustainable development demonstration belt of China: Multiscale evaluation and multidimensional interaction

AbstractHow to seek multiregional sustainable development within planetary boundaries depends on the scientific inquiry into urban carrying capacity from multiscale evaluation and multidimensional interaction. Using a typical region moving forward on the sustainable development demonstration belt of China, the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB), as a case study, a new integrated framework of multiscale evaluation and multidimensional interaction is proposed to track the urban comprehensive carrying capacity. We made a multiscale comprehensive assessment and constructed a panel vector autoregressive model for giving dissection on the drivers of urban carrying capacity and the qualitative and quantitative interaction from multidimensional variations. Results show that (1) the urban carrying capacity of China's YREB and its three reaches harbors an upward trend over time although there are uneven development patterns of inter‐regional and inter‐dimensional urban carrying capacity; (2) factor market carrying capacity (FMCC) is the critical driving force among four dimensions of urban carrying capacity, which has promotion effects on ecological environment carrying capacity (EECC) and industrial economics carrying capacity, but an inhibiting effect on transportation carrying capacity (TCC). (3) FMCC is the Granger cause of TCC, and there is a bidirectional Granger causality between the dimensions of FMCC and EECC; (4) each dimension is self‐supporting and influenced by its fluctuations. Tracking the underlying factors of urban carrying capacity can help construct an early‐warning mechanism when confronting the challenge of sustainable development and play a guiding role in both academic and practical aspects.

Public funding and destination evolution in sparsely populated Arctic regions

This paper examines the role of public funding in transforming tourism pathways in sparsely populated Arctic destinations, comparing Northern Sweden and Finnish Lapland. Our theoretical framework considers destination path plasticity and moments of change through the lens of geographical political economy to understand patterns of uneven development. This perspective helps explain how regional development funding driven by multi-scalar political priorities and global markets set structural conditions for tourism. We present a spatial analysis of public funding between 2007 and 2021 for private firms and public projects, complemented by document analysis and expert interviews. We find that public funding in Finnish Lapland has largely reinforced ‘Arctification’ and export-driven tourism in a few locations. In Northern Sweden, it has focused more on redistributing resources to micro-businesses and broader socio-economic development in lagging regions, yet with limited impacts on changing dominant tourism pathways. Public projects improved knowledge creation and networking among public and private actors but were largely unable to consolidate emerging pathways in the long run. Overall, regional development funding supported incremental change around existing pathways and had limited transformative effects in response to shocks or disruptive moments due to the rigid nature of funding programmes.

Indirect Assessment of Watershed SDG7 Development Process Using Nighttime Light Data—An Example of the Aral Sea Watershed

The accurate calculation of sustainable development indicators is essential for the accurate assessment of the Sustainable Development Goals. This study develops a methodology that combines nighttime light indices, population distribution data, and statistics in order to examine changes and key drivers of SDG7 in the Aral Sea Basin from 2000–2020. In this study, the best-performing combination of four light indices and five simulation methods (two linear regression methods and three machine learning methods) was selected to simulate the spatial distribution of GDP in the Aral Sea Basin. The results showed that: (1) The prediction using the XGBoost model with TNL had better performance than other models. (2) From 2000 to 2020, the GDP of the Aral Sea Basin shows an uneven development pattern while growing rapidly (+101.73 billion, +585.5%), with the GDP of the lower Aral Sea and the Amu Darya River gradually concentrating in the middle Aral Sea and Syr Darya River basins, respectively. At the same time, the GDP of the Aral Sea Basin shows a strong negative correlation with the area of water bodies. (3) Although there is a small increase in the score (+6.57) and ranking (+9) of SDG7 for the Aral Sea Basin from 2000 to 2020, it is difficult to achieve SDG7 in 2030. Deepening inter-basin energy cooperation, enhancing investment in renewable energy, and increasing energy intensity is key to achieving SDG7.

How does regional integration development affect green innovation? Evidence from China's major urban agglomerations

Green innovation is deemed as a sound solution to balance socioeconomic development and eco-environmental improvement. The driving force of green innovation have received increasing attention from scholars. However, research on the driving effect of regional integration development on green innovation remains scant. To bridge the research gap, based on the panel data of China's main urban agglomerations from the year of 2006–2017, we constructed an index system to evaluate urban green innovation comprehensive level and applied baseline regression model and spatial econometric model to detect how regional integration development affects green innovation. The main findings are as follows: (1) The average green innovation level in China's major urban agglomerations harbors an upward trend when it increases from 0.11 to 0.47, although there is an uneven development pattern when the urban agglomeration with the highest green innovation level (0.62) from eastern region and the lowest one (0.34) from western region. (2) Empirical results show that improving regional integration level can significantly drive the green innovation development through some effective paths such as the advancement of foreign direct investment, financial development, and economic agglomeration. (3) Regional integration development exerts the pronounced spatial spillover effect on green innovation and promotes the green innovation level of local and adjacent cities. Thus, the research findings would provide new insights into the relationship and interaction between regional integration development and green innovation when exploring and seeking the multiregional sustainable development path from a story of China.

An Exploration of the Land–(Renewable) Energy Nexus

The need to understand the connection between land and energy has gained prominence in the calls to opt for renewable energy as part of the climate change mitigation actions. This need derives from the fact that renewable energy resources are site-specific and require rightful access and use of land. The impacts on landscape, land tenure, and land-use patterns of constructing energy facilities are significant, and they may subsequently undermine the authority of local communities. Still, the connection between land and energy is not yet part of integrated development policies and political debates when deciding on renewable energy projects. Therefore, this study critically reviews the land–energy nexus with the aim to understand and explain how the uptake of renewable energy is shaping the land–energy nexus and how renewable energy technologies are evolving and interacting in different regions of the world, particularly in the Global South. Theoretically, the land–energy nexus tends to reflect a dual tension between those who support the rapid expansion of renewable energy projects and those who oppose it due to concerns over land pressure and social impacts. We consider that this contrast is ruled by both the ecological modernization paradigm and the environmental and social justice paradigm, as part of wider environmental and social debates. The study adopts an integrative literature review built on the analysis of existing literature and deductive logical reasoning to create new, exhaustive scientific knowledge focusing on three interdependent dimensions: land requirements and planning policy, environmental impacts, and public opposition, as an informative guidance for future research and policies. The multiple forms of social dispute and agency demonstrate that dominant narratives supporting renewables act as a modern technological fix but provide only a partial solution for the climate and energy crisis. The deployment of renewable energy creates land pressures and spatial patterns of uneven development. These are visible by numerous environmental and social outcomes, which may imperil the sustainability of the investment. Hence, there is the need of a land–energy balance as a new aspect of sustainable development.

Colonial Financial Infrastructures and Kenya’s Uneven Fintech Boom

AbstractKenya is a widely cited case for proponents of fintech for development. This article shows how Kenya’s fintech boom replicates patterns of uneven development inherited from the colonial era. In particular, fintech use is unevenly distributed between urban and rural areas, and heavily concentrated on Nairobi and Mombasa in particular. The article seeks to explain these patterns by situating them in relation to the spatiality and political economy of settler‐colonial agriculture, tracing successive (unsuccessful) efforts at reforming the financial system to ameliorate social and spatial disparities inherited from the colonial era. It does so drawing on recent debates about “financial infrastructures”, alongside considerations of the political economy of land, property relations, and the state.

Revealing the racial and spatial disparity in pediatric asthma: A Kansas City case study

Black and other socially disadvantaged children are disproportionately burdened by high rates of pediatric asthma. Intraurban variation in environmental risk factors and limited access to high-resolution health data make it difficult to identify vulnerable patients, communities, or the immediate exposures that may contribute to pediatric asthma exacerbation. This article presents a novel, interdisciplinary health disparities research and intervention strategy applied to the problem of pediatric asthma in Kansas City. First, address-level electronic health records from a major children's hospital in the Kansas City region are used to map the distribution of asthma encounters in 2012 at a high spatial resolution. Census tract Environmental Justice Screening Method (EJSM) indicators are then developed to scan for patterns in both the population health risks and vulnerabilities that may contribute to the burden of asthma in different communities. A Bayesian Profile Regression cluster analysis is used to systematically explore the complex relationships between census tract EJSM indicators and pediatric asthma incidence rates, helping to identify population characteristics and risk factors associated with both high and low rates of pediatric asthma throughout the region. The EJSM scanning exercise and BPR analysis demonstrate that each community faces a distinct set of risks and vulnerabilities that can contribute to the rate of acute pediatric asthma acute care encounters, providing targets for research and intervention. It is clear, however, that different forms of social disadvantage are driving high rates of pediatric asthma, which is closely tied to uneven development patterns and racial residential segregation. The results provide a starting point for designing place-based health disparities research and intervention strategies catered to the unique needs of vulnerable patients and communities; disparities-focused research and intervention strategies that leverage local knowledge and resources through community-based practices.

Capitalizing on Green Debt

Green bonds represent an increasingly popular way to match “environmental sustainability,” growth, and the aspirations of global financial capital. In this article, we leverage a world-ecology approach to unpack and make sense of green bonds as public/private constructions that shape and subordinate the complex ecologies of territories to the needs of finance and reproduce the global patterns of uneven development and capitalist accumulation. Through the study of recent green bond issuances realized by private companies active in the forestry sector in Brazil, we discuss how green bonds as a “new” form of “green” debt put nature at work and transform the territories and natural elements in the global south into “temporal and spatial fixes” for the needs of global financial capital.

Innovation in the era of generalized monopolies: the case of the US–Mexico automotive industrial complex

ABSTRACT During the last three decades, profound changes have taken place in the organization and subordination of scientific and technological workforce in the automotive sector, in new forms of rent generation and corporate appropriation of knowledge that distinguish the restructuring of innovation systems in contemporary capitalism. This paper delves into the content and characteristics of these changes, focusing on the paradigmatic case of the scientific-technological city based in the Greater Detroit area. Using the case of the relation between Mexico and the United States, it argues that the global deployment of innovation systems in the auto industry occurs under regional patterns of uneven development where the US retains the bulk of scientific and technological activity, while Mexico has been assigned a subordinate role, excluded from the creation of knowledge, despite being an important auto manufacturer. This asymmetric relation is associated to the incorporation of Mexican engineers in the US knowledge intensive automotive complex.

“I am Sapelo”: Racialized uneven development and land politics within the Gullah Geechee Corridor

The history of land struggles in the United States demonstrates how ongoing patterns of uneven development depend upon and codify the legacies of white supremacy. In this article, we show how the histories of white supremacy continue to be embedded and institutionalized into contemporary land and property politics through the processes of racialized uneven development using the case of Sapelo Island, Georgia. We trace the history of property relations on Sapelo over four periods (covering 1802–2020) to reveal how Black, Saltwater Geechee descendants’ presence on the island has persisted despite manifold attempts to manipulate, control, and dispossess families of their land. We re-interpret Sapelo’s history through the lens of abolition ecology to articulate how the struggle for life through land consistently runs up against state-sanctioned racial violence, which perpetuates and institutionalizes systemic racialized uneven development. We argue that the “racial state” is facilitating the dispossession of Geechee cultural heritage, which lies in having access to and ownership of the land and requires new political imaginaries to combat the persistence of these tactics.

Continuing processes of uneven development in post-apartheid South Africa

ABSTRACT Despite the multitude of political and economic changes in post-apartheid South Africa, poverty is being relocated from former Bantustans and townships to peri-urban areas. Examining historical economic and planning policies, and changing social relations near Polokwane, South Africa, this research provides an uneven development analysis of South Africa’s post-apartheid urban landscape. A mixed methods approach is applied to demonstrate new spatial configurations of inequality within and between peri-urban areas. The research concludes that neo-liberal urbanisms, local labor relations and local planning policies combined with the coproduction of peri-urban landscapes, shape new patterns of uneven development in post-apartheid South Africa.

GENTRIFICATION WITHOUT SEGREGATION? RACE, IMMIGRATION, AND RENEWAL IN A DIVERSIFYING CITY.

Research on how neighborhood racial composition affects where gentrification unfolds yields mixed conclusions, but these studies either capture broad national trends or highly segregated cities. Drawing on the case of Seattle-a majority-white city with low segregation levels and growing ethnoracial diversity, this study uncovers an underexplored mechanism shaping patterns of uneven development and residential selection in the contemporary city: immigrant replenishment. The share of all minorities is negatively associated with gentrification during the 1970s and 1980s, and, in contrast to expectations, shares of blacks positively predicts recent gentrification while shares of Asians negatively predicts it. Increased concentrations of recent immigrants in neighborhoods with greater shares of Asians explain these relationships. These findings suggest that where arriving immigrants move limits residential selection in gentrification and shifts pressures to low-cost black neighborhoods. This study highlights how immigration and points of entry are important factors for understanding uneven development in the contemporary city and has implications for the future of racial stratification as cities transform.

School deserts: Visualizing the death of the neighborhood school

The purported purpose of school choice policies is to increase students’ access to “good schools.” There is little discussion, however, of where those good schools are located, nor of the ways in which the distribution of good schools mirrors broader patterns of uneven development in the United States. Given that schools are neighborhood assets and that the distance which students travel to get to school affects their success, the locations of schools matter tremendously and are inextricable from questions of social and spatial justice. We introduce and argue for the explicit use of the term “school desert” as a way for scholars to understand and describe the spatial injustice of school closures and for activists to argue the importance of effective local schools. Spatial visualization and rendering of social problems is an invaluable strategy for effecting policy change. As cities move increasingly to a “de-spatialized” geography of schooling where catchment zones are less determinate of where a student attends school, it is important to consider where the desirable schools are and where they are not. A more nuanced visualization of school locations than neighborhood demographics offers a new lens through which to examine the (un)intended effects of school closures on students, communities, and development. Using Pennsylvania as a case study, we use a geographic information system (GIS) to evaluate the broader reverberations of school choice policies and determine who, demographically, has access to high-quality schools. In light of this research, we also propose an innovative analytic and methodology that describes the educational inequity which is caused by spatial relationships between students’ homes and high-quality schooling. Through the concept of a school desert we explore the (un)intended spatial implications of school closures. School deserts occur as a result of school choice policies that justify school closures. Closures and the location of good schools are geographically uneven, tempered by the federal and local policies that ensure income and racial segregation in US housing. Our analysis of Pennsylvania reveals the uneven distribution of access to good schools in the same way that mapping food deserts displays how market forces have failed to evenly distribute quality food. We find that areas with high-quality schools are significantly wealthier and whiter than school deserts, a conclusion which mirrors those concerning other low-quality neighborhood assets. School deserts as a methodology demonstrate that if students do not have geographic access to good schools, then school choice policies do not, in fact, offer choice.

The effects of National High-tech Industrial Development Zones on economic development and environmental pollution in China during 2003-2018.

Utilizing National High-tech Industrial Development Zones (NHIDZs) as a quasi-natural experiment, this study has adopted 285 prefecture and above cities from 2003 to 2018 in China as the research samples and constructed the difference-in-differences (DID) and spatial difference-in-differences (SDID) models to investigate the effects of NHIDZs on economic development and environmental pollution at national, regional, and administrative levels. The results show that NHIDZs have basically achieved a win-win situation in promoting economic development and reducing environmental pollution at the national level. However, spatial heterogeneity is supported at regional and administrative levels. Specifically, "the law of diminishing marginal effect" of NHIDZs is proved in the eastern cities and key cities, which reveals the uneven development pattern of government leading in China, and highlights the importance and necessary of making policy according to local conditions and governing environmental pollution by classification.

Uneven development and the balance of payments constrained model: Terms of trade, economic cycles, and productivity catching-up

This paper addresses (I) the transition dynamics incompatibility between the BPCM and the Prebisch-Singer hypothesis (PSH) (II) the causes of cyclical volatility in developing countries. In order to discuss these issues, we expand the Dutt (2002) model adding: (a) a productivity gap dynamics in which the south has a catching-up element; (b) a labor market dynamics, by including a wage curve in the relationship between employment rate and economic activity; and (c) a labor supply dynamics that considers the labor transfer issue between traditional and modern sectors. The result is a four dimensional dynamic model that represents a lagged developing economy constrained by its balance of payments. We find that our model converges and generates damped cycles. Fragile economies show an oscillatory decline in terms of trade, reinforcing an uneven development pattern between north and south. Industrialization and higher learning capabilities, however, can change the adjustment to a catching-up scenario.

Scalar Politics and Uneven Accessibility to Intercity Railway in the Pearl River Delta, China

Focusing on the state as a contradiction-ridden, multiscalar institutional ensemble, this article interrogates the relationships between scalar politics and uneven development through two interrelated arguments. First, uneven development reflects the historical layering of the scalar architecture of state regulation. It is produced by the interplay between contradictions of sociospatial interests among state agents owing to the prevailing scalar division of labor and inherent patterns of uneven development inscribed by earlier rounds of state scalar arrangements. Second, actual patterns of this state-driven uneven development are mediated by a variety of discourses, through which contending state agents bargain for and against particular forms of state rescaling to assert their power and interests. Illustrating these arguments, this article examines the recent development of the Pearl River Delta Intercity Railway System through a combination of quantitative analysis, interviews, and documentary review. It reveals a pattern of uneven accessibility that defies conventional wisdom, with the region’s most developed cities possessing the worst station accessibility. It is found that this unevenness stems from conflicts between scalar state agents with differentiated powers over the railway regime on what constitutes the most efficient siting of stations, reinforced by disparities in economic and railway development attributable to historical state scalar selectivities. The scalar politics that resulted was discursively mediated, as the contending state agents leveraged various discourses, evoking a medley of scales of governance and issues to defend for their preferred station locations.

Infrastructures as Catalysts: Precipitating Uneven Patterns of Development from Large-Scale Infrastructure Investments

While infrastructure investments in developing regions may bring about aggregate benefits, the distribution of those benefits cannot be ignored. The present paper examines such distributional effects based on two illustrations: rural roads in Ethiopia and flood control systems in Bangladesh. In both cases, the infrastructures promote particular development patterns towards market-economic transformations and integration. We liken the introduction of these infrastructures to the addition of a catalyst in a chemical reaction. Rural roads, for example, catalyse existing flows of agricultural labour, while flood control catalyses agricultural productivity. Taking the analogy a step further, the effects of a catalyst are known to vary due to the presence of so-called inhibitors and promoters. Applying this to the two cases, the paper reveals that, among other factors, the ownership (or lack thereof) of modes of transportation in Ethiopia and land resources in Bangladesh represent significant promoters (or inhibitors) that can help to explain the unequal distribution of benefits. This question is by no means new; past technical assistance programmes were already fiercely criticized for exacerbating inequalities. Today, commercial and political interests are again intensifying infrastructural investments in developing regions with profound impacts on local economies and livelihoods. Revisiting the question of distribution is, therefore, as relevant as ever.

The Death and Revival of Usury in China: An Institutional Analysis

:The practice of usury has recently provoked an intense debate in China. While the practice is widely condemned, prominent figures have sought to legitimize it with economic analysis. The institutional competition between ancient usury and modern money and banking has persisted for centuries and seems far from ending. This article examines the institutional factors underpinning the revival of usury in China after a thirty-year stretch (1948–1978), during which the practice had virtually disappeared. The revival of usury is attributed mainly to a pattern of uneven development in China. Usury, by its nature, is a drag on economic productivity and a source of social discord. As China endeavors to achieve a more broad-based human flourishing, the practice of usury must be prohibited strictly once more.