Socio-spatial Analysis Research Articles

Pensar la formación para la ciudadanía en clave espacial. Una lectura comprensiva de David Harvey y Doreen Massey

<p>El presente artículo tiene como propósito inicial realizar una reflexión acerca de las potencialidades analíticas y conceptuales de la teoría espacial de Doreen Massey y David Harvey, en el análisis de la formación para la ciudadanía y la construcción de subjetividades desde la escuela. Para ello, se revisan los conceptos de espacio y espacialidad que los autores han propuesto en dos de sus trabajos más representativos: La condición de la posmodernidad (Harvey, 2003) y Ciudad mundial (Massey, 2008). Se comentan, a modo de introducción y antecedentes, algunas de las propuestas conceptuales del filósofo francés Henri Lefebvre, quien ha realizado un interesante acercamiento fenomenológico al concepto de espacio, sus representaciones y las experiencias vividas por los sujetos. Esta propuesta, de una u otra forma, se puede rastrear en autores como Milton Santos o Edward Soja. De este modo, se toma como punto de partida una premisa que sirve a la vez de eje articulador y de idea central del presente artículo: es relevante para el análisis socioespacial el uso social del territorio, y no el territorio per se. Esta idea está presente tanto en Milton Santos, como en Henri Lefebvre, Edward Soja y en los autores de los que nos ocupamos.<br />En seguida, se exponen de manera muy sucinta algunas observaciones y registros tomados de la práctica pedagógica del autor del artículo con estudiantes de diversos grados del Centro Educativo Rural Olarte de la localidad de Usme en Bogotá. Estos registros hacen parte de las representaciones y concepciones sobre el espacio vivido por parte de los estudiantes. La información que se presenta no pretende seguir un método particular de análisis, sino que se vincula en la reflexión para ilustrar la aplicación de los conceptos de los dos autores estudiados en escenarios escolares. De este modo, se podrán abordar los dos contextos conceptuales, escuela-espacio, y así comprender las posibilidades de un ejercicio político escolar dinámico, constructor de subjetividades y de respeto por la diferencia y la diversidad.</p>

Análisis socioespacial con sistemas de información geográfica marco conceptual basado en la teoría de la geografía

La potencialidad actual de los Sistemas de Información Geográfica (SIG) y el desarrollo de los Sistemas de Ayuda a la Decisión Espacial (SADE) han proporcionado novedosas posibilidades para los estudios de las localizaciones, distribuciones, asociaciones, interacciones y evoluciones espaciales.Las metodologías de mayor aplicación fueron desarrolladas en el interior de perspectivas racionalistas y cuantitativas, las cuales encuentran en la teoría de los Sistemas Complejos el marco que justifica la focalización espacial.El presente trabajo arriba a la consideración de un marco teórico sustentado en la teoría de la Geografía en la búsqueda de resultados concretos a través de una ciencia aplicada que permita actuar sobre la realidad empírica.Revista Ciencias Espaciales, Volumen 8, Número 2 Otoño, 2015; 391-408

Vulnerabilidade socioespacial na planície de inundação na cidade de Aquidauana / MS – Brasil

Localizada no estado de Mato Grosso do Sul, a sede municipal de Aquidauana tem sofrido com a materialização de inundações sucessivas. O objetivo do trabalho foi realizar a análise socioespacial e ambiental na planície de inundação, utilizando-se técnicas de mapeamento e entrevistas junto à população. Os resultados apontam o aumento eminente das inundações, número de residências, topofilia, danos materiais, prejuízos econômicos e sociais.

A socio-spatial analysis of urban transformation at a neighborhood scale: The case of the relocation of Kadifekale inhabitants to TOKİ Uzundere in İzmir

Particularly in the last two decades, urban governors have presented urban transformation projects as ideal solutions to help low-income urban residents improve their living conditions. However, the way they have been carried out and their consequences mean that these projects do not, in most cases, bring the expected improvements. Most projects involve relocating residents to new, more peripheral districts of the city, which causes social isolation and certain socio-spatial incompatibilities between their previous and new habitats.Using a case from Izmir in Turkey, this study aims to analyze such socio-spatial incompatibilities in the lives of low-income residents that are caused by relocation within the framework of urban transformation projects. One of Izmir’s earliest inner-city gecekondu neighborhoods, Kadifekale was chosen by Izmir Metropolitan Municipality as a site for urban transformation due to the risk of landslide in the area. Before the start of the project, the neighborhood contained 7324 housing units accommodating rural-to-urban migrants, mainly from the southeast of Turkey. This urban transformation project aimed to relocate at least some of the inhabitants from their homes in Kadifekale to recently constructed apartment blocks in the TOKİ Uzundere Public Housing Project on the periphery of the city. Although many residents were reluctant to exchange their houses for new apartments, some were persuaded to move to TOKİ, which was presented as the ideal solution by the municipal officials.This study critically evaluates the Kadifekale urban transformation project, particularly with regard to the relocation of some Kadifekale residents from their one- or two-story houses in Kadifekale to apartment blocks on the periphery of the city. The analysis is based on a comparison between the socio-spatial experiences of migrants in Kadifekale and their recent experiences in Uzundere and the possibility of certain incompatibilities in these two experiences. The argument aims to demonstrate the changed conditions of social life and daily life practices as a result of altered spatial properties at a neighborhood scale: their use of outdoor spaces, the meanings they attributed to neighborhood space (“intimacy of place” within categories of sensual (visual and olfactory) recognition), and their sociospatial network. The argument draws both implicitly and explicitly on Henri Lefebvre’s spatial triad and De Certeau’s conceptualization of tactic versus strategy as the major conceptual inspirations for this study.

사회-공간 네트워크 분석을 통한 주민센터의 건축프로그램 도출 방법에 관한 연구

The purpose of this study is to derive the architectural programming method for the community service center using Socio-Spatial Network Analysis. This study focused on the reflection of users' opinions to the architectural program of public buildings. This study assumed that the architectural program is equal to the network consisting of people's desires for spaces. And it assumed that the architectural programming is a process to pro-graphein(beforehand-write) the spatial structure as a network of users' opinions. Thus we used the network analysis method on local residents' opinions for the space in the community service center. As a result, we identified the qualitative characteristics of spaces and spatial areas through the centrality analysis, the structural equivalence analysis, the Girvan-Newman algorithm analysis. Through the centrality analysis with edge betweenness centrality analysis, we were able to identify the properties of spaces and the positions of main communal space. Through the structural equivalence analysis and the Girvan-Newman algorithm analysis, we were able to derive the properties of spatial areas and spatial communities. In the end, we were able to grasp the architectural program as socio-spatial network of community service center.

Intersections of regulation, space and gender: retail banking in an Australian Regional Town

This paper analyses the intersections of employment regulation, gender and space in the working lives of employees in three banks in an Australian Regional Town, contributing to a socio-spatial analysis of the impact of different levels of regulation. Illustrating our analysis through a dispute around Saturday working at one of these banks, we argue that ‘place’ and ‘space’, in the location and organisation of these banking worksites and in the social organisation of family and market work, create a distinct and gendered pattern of opportunities and constraints for banking employees. The lived experiences of the workers negotiating, accommodating and resisting inadequate staffing and the unilateral imposition of new working time arrangements, highlight the dynamic and contradictory practice of employment regulation, both formal and informal, at the local and individual levels and the ways it intersects with space and gender to shape working lives.

Constructing the Marketplace: A Socio-Spatial Analysis of Past Marketplaces of Istanbul

Constructing the Marketplace: A Socio-Spatial Analysis of Past Marketplaces of Istanbul

Saints and Church Spaces in the Late Antique Mediterranean: Architecture, Cult and Community by Ann Marie Yasin (review)

Reviewed by: Saints and Church Spaces in the Late Antique Mediterranean: Architecture, Cult and Community by Ann Marie Yasin Susan T. Stevens Ann Marie Yasin Saints and Church Spaces in the Late Antique Mediterranean: Architecture, Cult and Community Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009 Pp. xxi + 337. $99. This is a substantive, original, thought-provoking, and dense book that employs the author's technique of socio-spatial analysis, developed under the influence of archaeological evidence and anthropological theory, to explore the role of saints in elaborating the social function of spaces in fourth- to seventh-century churches. The strengths of the book are many. It shows how a socio-spatial perspective moves away from a consideration of church architecture per se, toward an understanding of the social and communal function of churches. It is learned, demonstrating an enviable command of trends in scholarship. It is ambitious in scope because it is both interdisciplinary in approach—using literary and material evidence—and pan-Mediterranean in coverage. It puts early Christian practice into context by emphasizing its Roman roots, effectively bridging the frequently observed Roman and early Christian scholarly divide. Finally, throughout the book, the author makes new use of oft-cited inscriptions, by demonstrating the interaction of their texts, images, locations and even materials, which too often are considered separately. The book's organization into two parts, chapters 1-3 (14-150) and chapters 4-6 (151-285) clearly reflects its origin in the exploration of two questions (286). The first, discussed at length in part one, is how church spaces functioned as settings for the sacred, communal and commemorative action of their communities. The purpose of part one, in fact, is to demonstrate how the author's socio-spatial readings, particularly of funerary and euergetic inscriptions, both fit into contemporary scholarship and yield results different from other scholars. After a persuasive introduction about the new perspectives offered by socio-spatial analysis, chapter one consists exclusively of a discussion of the about-face of the mid-fourth century when Christian sacred space first became materially manifested in the joining of relics and altars. As a result Yasin gives an early impression that the socio-spatial approach is least enlightening when discussing the sacred dimension of churches. For reasons that are not entirely clear, the analysis of the interior arrangement, decoration, and furnishing of churches do not figure in this chapter as evidence for the hierarchical sacrality of church spaces because that [End Page 137] discussion is somewhat artificially withheld until chapter four in part two. In fact, aside from reliquary-altars, the author does not consider those large areas of the church inaccessible to the lay community, where the action of the clergy took place. Yasin's focus throughout the book remains firmly on the lower end of the spectrum of hierarchical sacrality. The second question, discussed in part two, concerns how and where the saints, visually, textually and aurally represented in churches, bridged the divide between the Christian lay community and its clerical officiants. Thus, the saints—the primary topic of the book's title—except for a discussion of relics in chapter 1, appear only in the second part of the book, where their role is expressed (one might almost say downplayed) as reinforcers of the churches' sacred, communal, and commemorative functions. This is unfortunate, because the methodological frame in part one overpowers the more original picture it encloses in part one. In fact, chapters four through six are the meatier part of the book, a more free-flowing and masterful socio-spatial analysis of inscriptions, images and prayers invoking the saints that need not have followed the sacred-communal-commemorative structure of part one. In the end, while the book's two questions are definitely related, the work of interweaving them is left mostly to the reader since the brief conclusion (286-91) is a reiteration rather than an enlargement upon earlier material. The volume's stubbornly bipartite structure and absence of a unifying argument gives it a kind of a split personality. Part one seems designed for a more general audience while part two speaks specifically to early Christian specialists. Likewise two consistent stylistic choices seem...

Linking Charter School Emergence to Urban Revitalization and Gentrification: A Socio-Spatial Analysis of Three Cities

ABSTRACT:The link between neighborhood quality and school quality is long-standing and well established. Over the last two decades there have been several federally sponsored initiatives aimed at revitalizing the urban core; initiatives that emerged around the same time as charter schools. Despite the changing urban context that has occurred alongside charter school emergence, little research has addressed the link between urban revitalization efforts and charter school emergence. Using three cities that have experienced massive urban core revitalization and metropolitan growth since the early 1990s (Atlanta, Chicago, and Philadelphia), we examine whether demographic changes resulting from urban revitalization and gentrification are associated with the opening of a charter school. Our findings illustrate a somewhat mixed account. We find some evidence to support this link in Chicago and Philadelphia, whereas we find little support for it in Atlanta.

The politics of new media, space, and race: A socio-spatial analysis of the 2008 presidential election

Recent national, regional, and community-level research has shown that the Internet has the potential to provide a powerful medium for political engagement. Yet, systematic analyses that consider space and place as critical components of this area of research are lacking. This issue is important inasmuch as the extant literature has clearly shown that the diffusion of sophisticated Internet technology to some places has been slow and that the use of high-speed broadband modems has a significant impact on using the technology for social and economic purposes. The data for this study come from the nationally representative Pew Internet and American Life Study conducted in November 2008 directly after the United States presidential election. Although the results are consistent with previous research on both spatial and digital inequality in terms of Internet use, the interactions between race and place suggest that it is not just that the Obama campaign used new media to mobilize constituents, but that these efforts were realized in a particular region of the country and were particularly influential in given segments of the population. Implications for future research and the value of digital capital are discussed.

‘Can we play on the swings and roundabouts?’: creating inclusive play spaces for disabled young people and their families

The importance of play for children’s development and wellbeing has been well established. However, disabled children and their families frequently find accessing play sites challenging due to a range of physical and social barriers and are therefore unable to experience many of the benefits play in this setting provides. Increasingly, United Kingdom policy has recognised this with the 2008 Play Strategy making an explicit commitment supported by funding to ensure that more inclusive public play facilities are developed. Using a case study example of a newly developed ‘inclusive’ play facility, this paper examines the views of young disabled people and their families regarding what makes a play facility inclusive. Using a socio-spatial analysis the paper identifies the importance of not only addressing physical constraints but also creating a space where disability is viewed positively and able-bodied discourses are not privileged at the expense of others. The importance of consulting with families, location of facilities and the role of play workers are all analysed. The paper concludes by critically examining the implications of the findings for the delivery of the Play Strategy particularly within the context of public spending cuts imposed by the new Coalition Government, and considers whether inclusive play spaces can become a standard and embedded part of community facilities.

Urban Public Spaces and Vitality: A Socio-Spatial Analysis in the Streets of Cypriot Towns

This paper focuses on the issue of vitality in urban public spaces, streets in particular, as a major indicator of their success. The study first provides a theoretical framework for understanding the social value and role of urban public spaces on quality of urban life; second, it discusses the essential components of vitality in streets. Finally, investigating vitality and its determinants in two major streets in Famagusta and Kyrenia, North Cyprus, the paper highlights the issues of proper connections and proximity to important magnets, and physical and social attributes in the street area.

The beach enclave: A landscape of power

This paper analyses the beach enclave resort of Senegambia in The Gambia as a landscape of power through the physical structure and the power relationships between different stakeholders reinforced by strict legislative and security measures. Beach enclaves are manifested as landscapes which protect tourists rather than national landscapes with leisure access and business opportunities for all. Building on a socio-spatial analysis of power and landscape, power relations in beach enclaves are discussed. Cultural and economic representations of the enclave product in a Less Economically Developed Country context are imbued with positive and negative socio-economic and cultural impacts. Post-structuralism and Structure and Agency are applied to further understand where marginality results from enclave tourism. The paper demonstrates a gap in the tourism literature and the need for further research on how places of marginality in tourist destinations are socially constructed by the power of individuals and organisations.

Mountaintop Removal and Job Creation: Exploring the Relationship Using Spatial Regression

This project focused on a new and increasingly contested method of coal extraction, mountaintop removal (MTR), and its effects on central Appalachian residents’ quality of life vis-à-vis increased employment. Attention is given to central Appalachia because its fossil fuel landscapes have undergone major changes as a result of two interrelated forces: (1) a national push for energy independence that led to the region's all-time high production of coal (supplying over half of the nation's coal); and (2) changes in mining technology that allowed for increased production. Such transitions have led to widespread use of MTR mining, a method that entails removal of extensive land area to expose coal seams. Although policymakers are aware of the negative environmental effects of MTR, its continued use is primarily rationalized using the argument that it contributes to local economies, especially job retention and development. MTR proponents argue that, without MTR, other regions and countries more competitively extract coal. Opponents counter that MTR fails to substantially contribute to employment due to efficiencies in mechanization. This study used socio-spatial analysis to understand MTR's impact on employment in southern West Virginia populated places. We integrated coal mining permit boundaries with employment indicators obtained from the U.S. Census. Contrary to pro-MTR arguments, we found no supporting evidence suggesting MTR contributed positively to nearby communities’ employment. Implications for economic development are discussed.

DIY Home Improvements in a Post-Soviet Housing Market: A Socio-Spatial Analysis of Vilnius, Lithuania

As part of the Large Analysis and Review of European housing and health Status (LARES), the WHO collected data in eight European cities during 2001 and 2002. Using this data, the paper analyses home-related ‘do-it-yourself (DIY)’ activities in Vilnius, Lithuania where housing was privatized following the collapse of Communism. The paper investigates whether DIY activities were prevalent near the ‘Old Town’ where officials encouraged renovation. It was found that overall, DIY activities were prevalent among households in 2001–2002 regardless of socio-economic status. However, residents of particular housing types were not more likely to engage in DIY activities nor was DIY activity associated with condition of buildings and open spaces between buildings. Nonetheless, perceptions of neighborhood quality were important in explaining DIY activity. The findings also show that DIY activity was no greater in/near the gentrifying city center than elsewhere. Interviews with Vilnius officials suggest several aspects of the local household or neighborhood environment not captured by the survey that help explain study findings.

Mixed income housing policy and public housing residents' `right to the city'

Economic integration through various mixed income housing strategies has become the dominant housing policy in many parts of the world. In the United States, this strategy involves a restructuring of space often with conflict. Henri Lefebvre's `right to the city' is used to conduct a socio-spatial analysis of mixed income housing programmes, including the degree that integration increases public housing residents' access to diverse neighbourhoods, the use value of a city, and participatory space. The paper concludes that mixed income housing has the potential to increase public housing residents' `right to the city' but that policy implementers need to be proactive in the face of barriers such as community opposition to subsidized housing that can hinder the right. Future research should focus on evaluating the benefits of mixed income housing policy for neediest residents and ways to increase their rights to social, economic and political space.

Mapping knowledge investments in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina: a new approach for assessing regulatory agency responses to environmental disaster

Abstract In the aftermath of large-scale disasters, the public's dependency on federal and state agencies for information about public safety and environmental risk is acute. While formal rules and procedures are in place to guide policy decisions in environmental risk assessment of spatially concentrated hazards such as regulated waste sites or vacant city lots, standard procedures for risk assessment seem potentially less well-suited for urban-scale disaster zones where environmental hazards may be widely dispersed and widely varying. In this paper we offer a new approach for the social assessment of regulatory science in response to large-scale disaster, illustrating our methodology through a socio-spatial analysis of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) hazard assessment in New Orleans, Louisiana, following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. We find that the agency's commitment of epistemic resources or “knowledge investments” varied considerably across the flood-impacted portion of the city, concentrating in poorer and disproportionately African American neighborhoods previously known to be heavily contaminated. We address some of the study's social and policy implications, noting the multidimensionality and interactive nature of knowledge investments and the prospects for deepening and extending this approach through comparative research.

A socio-spatial analysis of voting for political parties at the 2007 federal election

The 2007 federal election in Australia saw voters throw out of office the Howard Coalition Government, which had been in power for more than a decade, and elect the Rudd Labor Government. That represents a fundamental change in Australia's socio-political landscape. This paper provides an analysis of voter support for parties focusing on the disaggregated spatial level of local polling booths. Relationships between votes for political parties for the House of Representatives and the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of populations living in polling booth catchments across all the electorates in Australia are modelled to identify key demographic and socio-political dimensions underlying voter support for political parties.

Ungleiche Lebensbedingungen und Gesundheitschancen bei Kindern im Vorschulalter: Schutzfaktoren fördern – Risikofaktoren begrenzen!

Manifestations of an aggravation of social antagonisms and increased reports about childhood poverty and child abuse have unleashed a broad debate about the situation of children in risk-laden circumstances. More and more children are affected by relative poverty and disadvantage. An increase in the number children under 15 who receive social assistance can also be registered in Bremen, this share even increased to 60% in especially burdened districts. Against this background, the Bremen Health Department used a socio-spatial analysis to determine whether the utilisation of health examinations and the social and cultural participation chances of preschool children differed according to their living conditions. To this end, selected data from the school entrance examinations from 1998 to 2005 were analysed in regard to their relevance for the participation chances in different child-related dimensions of the life situation. Contradictory developments could be found, both in the dimension of the utilisation of health examinations and in the dimension of social and cultural participation chances. Children from disadvantaged neighbourhoods exhibited a lower utilisation of health examinations and less chances for social and cultural participation than children from more well-to-do residential areas. Trend calculations for the years 1998 to 2005 show an increasing discrepancy between children from disadvantaged and those from well-to-do neighbourhoods. Disadvantaged life situations - with the danger of increasing exclusion - appear to be establishing themselves in Bremen. The resources of children and families for dealing with risk-laden life situations have to be strengthened. Effective and long-lasting prevention approaches have to be developed and implemented at the local level. Kindergartens and schools could serve as centres for community networking strategies. Integrated concepts for action in the respective social areas are necessary to protect children and guarantee them fair chances despite disadvantaged living conditions.

Locational Patterns of Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Developments

This study examined neighborhood characteristics and spatial patterns of Low-Income Housing Tax-Credit (LIHTC) developments in four metropolitan areas using census data and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) LIHTC database. Sociospatial analysis determined neighborhood characteristics associated with LIHTC developments and how clustered or dispersed they are. Findings indicate that as a low-income housing policy, the LIHTC program was more successful than other programs at locating developments in less disadvantaged neighborhoods but not as successful at avoiding geographic concentrations associated with these other low-income housing programs. The presence of a LIHTC project increased the likelihood of nearby LIHTC development by rewarding developers who place LIHTC units in qualified census tracts.