Socio-spatial Context Research Articles

Relationship between Residential Patterns and Socioeconomic Statuses Based on Multi-Source Spatial Data: A Case Study of Nanjing, China

The relationship between residential patterns and socioeconomic statuses highlights the complex interactions between the economic regime, welfare system, and neighborhood effects, which are crucial in urban inequality studies. With the diversification of the housing demand and supply system, the traditional analysis conducted separately from the ethnic or spatial segregation perspective fails to capture the rising inequalities and changing socio-spatial context. Taking Nanjing as an example, based on a multi-source database including the housing price, residential environmental quality, surrounding support facilities, and mobile phone user portrait data, this paper proposed a modified method for discovering the coupling relationship between residential patterns and socioeconomic statuses. It is found that socioeconomic status contributes to residential spatial aggregation and that the relationship between social and spatial dimensions of residential differentiation is tightly coupled and related. The lower socioeconomic strata were displaced to the periphery and the older urban core, while affluent inhabitants were more likely to settle voluntarily in segregated enclaves to isolate themselves from the general population through more flexible housing options. The heterogeneity of the urban socioeconomic dimension is primarily affected by consumption and occupational status, while housing prices mainly determine the divergence of spatial distribution.

COVID-19 mortality: educational inequalities and socio-spatial context in two provinces of Argentina.

Motivation for the study. There are very few studies on the educational inequalities in COVID-19 mortality, taking into account social contextual factors. Main findings. We found educational inequalities of COVID-19 mortality during both the 2020 and 2021 waves, regardless of the level of poverty and urbanization in the departments of Mendoza and San Juan provinces (Argentina). Implications. Preventive policies should focus not only in areas with high levels of poverty, but also in areas with adults of low educational level. With the aim of describing the association between sociodemographic characteristics and contextual factors with COVID-19 mortality during 2020-2021 in the provinces of Mendoza and San Juan in Argentina, we conducted an ecological study, which included the sociodemographic factors: age, sex and educational level, and the contextual factors: poverty and urbanization at the departmental level. The analyses were estimated using negative binomial Bayesian hierarchical models. Educational inequalities existed regardless of socioeconomic context and level of urbanization. The exception was the age group 65 years and older during 2021, which, regardless of educational level, showed a higher risk of death by COVID-19 in departments with high levels of structural poverty. In conclusion, educational inequality is an indicator of social inequality that increases vulnerability to COVID-19 mortality.

Feeling The Distance: Exploring Novice Student Designers' Perceptions of the Psychological Distance and Empathic Response Towards Variations of a Sustainable Design Problem

Abstract Research suggests novice designers find it challenging to integrate social context into engineering design. This challenge could be pronounced in sustainable design because the effects of climate change are perceived to be psychologically distant, which inhibits active engagement in sustainable behavior. However, prior work assesses psychological distance as an aggregate of its various subcomponents (e.g., temporal, social, spatial, and hypothetical). Limited research has explored how these components vary based on the socio-spatial context of the problem. Additionally, empathy development could be an effective mechanism to bridge psychological distance. However, little is known about the impact of empathy-focused problem formulation on student perceptions. We studied students' perceptions of problem formulations in a 2×2 factorial between-subjects experiment. The problems varied in (1) their socio-spatial context and (2) their empathy-focus. We measured the students' perceptions of the problem formulations using: (1) perceived psychological distance and (2) perceived empathic response. We find that participants reported the problem contextualized in India to be a more immediate threat compared to the one in the USA. Moreover, we find no significant differences in the other components of psychological distance or empathic response between the problem variants. This finding suggests that participants perceive environmental issues as currently affecting people in other parts of the world, and not themselves, but only from a temporal lens. These findings call for educators to carefully consider temporal framing when using socio-spatially far sustainable design problems as a lack of consideration could create faulty perceptions.

Housing Practices of Albanian Immigrants in Athens: An “in-between” Socio-Spatial Condition

Immigrants’ access to housing is often the outcome of self-settlement practices within a context of limited social policies that often characterizes Southern European metropolises. Hence, immigrants are facing multiple constraints and remain vulnerable towards diverse socioeconomic fluctuations. This article focuses on the housing practices followed by Albanian immigrants, the largest immigrant group in Athens’s municipality, to examine how spatial inequalities are intertwined with ethnicity in the Greek capital. The objective is twofold: to discuss ethnic segregation on the micro-scale of Athenian central neighborhoods and examine how immigrants’ housing practices are being challenged within a rapidly changing socio-spatial context. The methodology follows a mixed approach, aiming at identifying differentiations and inequalities both on the macro- and micro-spatial scale. First, differentiations among Greeks, Albanians, and other third-country nationals in Athens (2011) are traced and compared, based on quantitative data. Second, for the purpose of highlighting micro-geographies in the city, this article presents an analysis of collected narratives of Albanian immigrants, through semi-structured interviews held in 2023. The main results indicate that the population under study finds itself in an “in-between” socio-spatial condition: an “in-between”, compared to the housing experiences of Greek households and other third-country nationals, that produces (and reproduces) segregation trends visible on the micro-scale. Moreover, this article attempts to highlight how the lack of housing policies put in peril the successful self-settlement practices of Albanian immigrants, in the current context of financialization of the Athenian housing market.

Resisting and Reclaiming: Squatting as Contentious Urban Politics in the U.S.

Abstract Squatting as contentious politics has been well studied globally, expanding knowledge of how everyday people resist injustices, strive to remake cities, and respond to local/regional conditions. These histories and contemporary struggles have largely been overlooked in the U.S. This article uses qualitative data to compare three recent cases of organized housing occupations in Detroit (2011), Oakland (2019), and Philadelphia (2020) by mothers of color with their children, to better understand how this form of global urban politics manifests in the U.S. Using this comparison, we identify important dimensions that have shaped these three cases of contentious politics and their outcomes, including differences in goals, tactics, and socio-spatial context. We also uncover the diagnostic and prognostic frames reflected in each case: despite common legal violations, each case purposefully diagnoses locally-rooted housing problems and suggests different property-relations as solutions. We find that each case varies in terms of what kind of property squatters target, how these spaces reflect broader structural problems in the U.S. housing market, and what kind of property-relations they envision with these occupations. In turn, our findings also advance understanding of this global urban politics by showing how squatting efforts may dovetail with place-based legacies, such as racial segregation and settler colonialism in the U.S. Researchers have long attended to organized housing struggles in their varied manifestations, but by foregrounding resistance to and reclaiming of property by squatters, we draw out understudied problems and possibilities related to land and housing occupations that are subverted within broader housing studies.

예술의전당 건립이 현악기점 집적에 미치는 영향

This study aims to explore the relationship between cultural facilities and regions by analyzing the impact of the establishment of the Seoul Arts Center on the agglomeration of stringed instrument stores. A spatial analysis of the distribution change of the Seoul musical instrument industry was conducted, and after the establishment of the Seoul Arts Center, it was confirmed that a new musical instrument store agglomeration centered on string instruments was formed in the area of the Seoul Arts Center in addition to Nag-won Shopping Center in Jongno-gu, which was an existing musical instrument store agglomeration. In addition, the process and factors of the agglomeration of stringed instrument stores around the Seoul Arts Center were examined by dividing them by period, and the causal relationship between the establishment of the Seoul Arts Center and the agglomeration of stringed instrument stores was inferred by analyzing the socio-spatial context and characteristics of the formation stringed instrument stores. This study differs from previous studies in that it analyzes the process of cultural economy emergence through the combination of the local urban context and the social characteristics of stringed musical instruments as cultural products from various perspectives. It also suggests that complex factors are required to trigger positive social and economic effects in a region through the construction of cultural facilities, and that comprehensive planning and consideration are needed in the promotion and operation of cultural facilities.

SOCIOSPATIAL FORMATION OF MIDDLE‐CLASS DISTINCTION: The Educated Middle Classes in Neo‐urban India

AbstractIn this article I examine the simultaneous expansion of urban sprawl and influx of middle‐class migrants in the context of Gurugram, India, to highlight how physical and social space plays an integral role in shaping class distinction among the migrant middle classes. I make a case for social class, generally, and migrant middle classes in neo‐urban contexts, specifically, to be understood as a sociospatial category. My arguments build primarily on Bourdieu's argument that both physical and social space operates on similar principles of reciprocal externality of positions in the context of social class distinction. I highlight how the migrant middle classes formulate and consolidate their social class distinction against competing claims over sociospatial dominance of the local ancestral agrarian community in neo‐urban Gurugram, India. My findings highlight how existing local sociopolitical fractures interact with global capitalist circuits of capital to shape the sociospatial context in which social class distinction is formulated. The article allows for grounding theorizations of social class to accommodate local sociopolitical and sociospatial dynamics.

Joint Effects of Perceived Hazard Risk and Contextual Situation on Responses

This study examined the relationship between risk perception and evacuation behavior, and the sociospatial contexts that affect evacuation. It is argued that risk perception and contextual conditions have a joint effect on evacuation. Data were collected from 3,756 evacuees in sixteen cities and towns affected by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake off the Pacific coast. Using geographic information systems (GIS), data from questionnaires on risk perception and activity diary surveys on behavioral response were combined with geospatial data. The main finding was that high risk perception leads to evacuation behavior, but that the difference between immediate and delayed evacuation depends on the sociospatial context. Delayed evacuation, compared with immediate evacuation, tends to occur in the following contexts: (1) the physical context (e.g., being inland at the time of the disaster impact); (2) the household context (e.g., the need to confirm the safety of household members); and (3) the social context (e.g., the need for assistance with mobility). This study extends the literature on disaster science and cognitive-behavioral geography by considering the relationship between perception and behavior in urban spaces in emergencies. The findings are relevant to the development of disaster preparedness planning to minimize human losses.

Holding on to life: COVID-19 pandemic impact, adaptation and resilience in Abeokuta, Nigeria

The COVID-19 posed severe public health effects across the world to an extent that it was declared a pandemic. Aside the health effects are other consequences associated with measures such as lockdown, isolation and physical distancing to curb the spread of the virus. This study assesses the impact of the pandemic on households and their adaptation across different residential density zones in Abeokuta, Nigeria, with a novelty of understanding its socio-spatial context. This study utilised a quantitative research design based on a cross-sectional survey for the phases of data collection, analysis and interpretation. A two-stage sampling technique was employed in selecting 422 participants for the study. All participants were administered questionnaire and 391 copies were considered during data analysis. The data were analysed using cross-tabulation and the hypotheses tested using ANOVA. Findings on socioeconomic characteristics showed that the distribution of respondents descriptively varied across the high, medi residential density zones. Evidence of significant variances in the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on households ([F (2, 388) = 30.406, p = 0.000]) and their adaptation strategies ([F (2, 388) = 39.539, p = 0.000]) were established across residential zones in Abeokuta. The practical implication provides for policymakers and stakeholders to design targeted interventions and support measures for households. The theoretical implication is about contributing to the existing body of knowledge on the impact of pandemics on households by establishing a socio-spatial context and highlighting the need for socioeconomic context-specific responses.

Unveiling pedestrian injury risk factors through integration of urban contexts using multimodal deep learning

This study aimed to identify contributing risk factors for pedestrian injury by integrating socio-spatial and street-level contexts through multimodal deep learning to overcome the limitations of existing studies that only consider one type of data. To investigate how the two contexts assist in describing pedestrian injury risk, six multimodal deep learning models were established by varying the ratio integrating the two contexts. The developed model with the highest performance was interpreted by using two XAI methods: SHAP for socio-spatial context and Grad-CAM for street-level context. The results indicated that the street-level context mainly contributes to the pedestrian injury risk level, assisted by the socio-spatial context, which cannot be captured at the street-level. The three main contributing risk factors were identified through model interpretation: the fragmented sky view due to the locations of high-rise buildings, the placement of crosswalks in areas adjacent to public transits, and interregional sociodemographic disparities. This study provides insight into the use of integrating two different urban contexts to identify pedestrian injury risk factors, which are expected to support improvement strategies that enhance public health.

Adolescents’ positive attitudes towards school: a reflection on the spatial configuration of school buildings

Evidence connecting the socio-spatial properties of a school building with adolescents’ positive attitudes towards school is rare. This study examines whether the socio-spatial context of school along with individual parameters of adolescents (such as gender and perception of attainment) influence their positive attitudes towards school. It harnesses spatial data by implementing analytical approaches to the understanding of the school layout, observational data, qualitative insights, and adolescents’ perception surveys in two finger-plan secondary schools in Cyprus. Two statistical models have been developed explaining 32% and 41% of the variation of students’ positive attitudes. The most important factors contributing to the models include the visibility potential of students’ classrooms and their perceptions of academic performance. Thus, the findings of this study are expected to help designers to understand the impacts of their design interventions and leaders in education to appreciate the role of the school building in adolescents’ positive attitudes towards school.

Influence of the socio-spatial context on the perception of environmental problems in cities in Spain and Argentina

Frequently, the relationship between humans and the rest of the biosphere led to environmental problems. The social perception of these problems, their impacts and their spatial scale (local or global) is a necessary line of research for the well-being of society and environmental conservation. To analyse social perception, a survey was carried out in capital and non-capital cities in Argentina and Spain. This study proposes novel attitudes (forms of perception) that have not been studied so far. These are: blind (no perception of the problem), myopic (local perception) and emmetropic (local and global perception), together with the previously studied hyperopic attitude (global perception). Results showed the perception of specific problems related to pollution, deforestation, global change, and discharges, among others. There was a predominantly emmetropic perception, highlighting a hyperopic attitude towards deforestation, with no perception of some problems. In Argentina, as in capital cities (densely populated areas), myopic attitudes predominated, with fewer problems perceived than in Spain or in non-capital cities (areas with lower population density), where emmetropic and hyperopic attitudes predominated. The results did not show similar attitudes between the two countries studied, and spatial proximity did not influence environmental perception. Less densely populated areas showed greater specific concern about agricultural and pollution problems, while more densely populated areas perceived general problems such as global change. Future studies on environmental perception, which delve deeper into the society-biosphere relationship, are essential to develop environmental awareness policies aimed at effectively mitigating the impacts of environmental problems.

Interpreting the energy choices and environmental satisfaction determinants in low-income housing typologies: Cases from slums and slum rehabilitation housing of Mumbai, India

This study explores the impact of built-environment characteristics and occupant behaviour on appliance ownership, energy consumption, and environmental satisfaction in low-income settlements. A shift in the built-environment setting significantly impacts energy choices, appliance purchase decisions, appliance characteristics, and related occupant behaviour and household practices. This study performs a comparative analysis of the horizontal slums and vertical tenements of slum rehabilitation housing (SRH) in Mumbai by quantitatively investigating the difference in built-environment settings from horizontality to verticality on energy decisions. A Computer-based Personal Interview was conducted among 643 slum and SRH households. This study established the significance of ‘lack of satisfaction and well-being’ as a key aspect of the impoverishment of the slum-displaced population. The displaced population with a tenured house and ‘hard infrastructure’ in the resettlement colonies adapts to the social structure, modifies social and household practices, and delves into improved energy choices, improving living standards. Yet, this minimally decent life fails to provide the occupants with environmental and life satisfaction and well-being. The study establishes that occupant behaviour is individual predilection oriented, and the socio-spatial context of ‘built-environment,’ with following rational modification, can improve the population's energy consumption and environmental satisfaction.

Betwixt and between: Triple liminality and liminal agency in the Swedish gig economy

In this paper, we identify when and why migrant gig workers experience liminality in the socio-spatial context of food delivery in the Swedish gig economy. We analyse qualitative interviews and informal conversations with food delivery workers in Stockholm through the lens of the territory-place-scale-network (TPSN) framework as developed by Bob Jessop, Neil Brenner and Martin Jones. We find that workers are challenged to deal with triple liminality regarding their work identities, workplaces and work organisation through platforms. Focusing on liminality as a central aspect of gig work, we further find that despite having little worker agency, some of the study participants engage in what we call liminal agency, that is actively pursuing possibilities for progress in uncertain states of in-betweenness. By unpacking the liminal dynamics that especially migrant food delivery riders are confronted with in their daily working lives, this study contributes to the debate on the migrant gig economy, the spatial turn in organisation studies and efforts from human geography to understand agency in precarious gig work.

In place, with power: (Re)conceptualising accountability in national non-government organisations

This paper analyses how a cross-section of non-government organisations (NGOs) in Australia interpret accountability under a neoliberal regime that combines the ‘soft’ power of markets with the ‘hard’ power of a new regulator. We focus on national NGOs, defined as NGOs whose primary services, beneficiaries and funders are co-located within one nation-state. National NGOs increasingly deliver core public services, but accountability in these organisations is understudied. Our paper addresses two questions: (i) What, if anything, is distinctive about how national NGOs interpret accountability; and (ii) How does the neoliberal mix of market and regulatory power affect accountability so defined? We conduct a hermeneutic analysis of 23 in-depth interviews and 80 consultation documents from national NGO Directors, CEOs and regulators. Our findings demonstrate initially the distinctive significance in national NGO accountability of what human geographers term place : Localised connections between people and socio-spatial context that persist even – arguably, especially , as neoliberalism diffuses accountability to national markets and/or standards. We also show how the effects of regulatory power on national NGO accountability are Janus-faced, largely because national NGOs are both subjects and agents of this power. This finding problematises prior research that polarises between viewing NGOs as either beneficiaries or passive subjects of regulatory power. We interpret the effects of regulatory power on national NGO accountability as more ambiguous, being dependent on both local contours of ‘place’ and how these NGOs assimilate regulatory power into their often-idiosyncratic assemblages of beliefs, norms and governance.

“The computer is never turned off”: Children's domestic practices and energy demand in urban China

Behavioural energy studies rarely include children. This is due to complex research ethics when working with minors but perhaps also related to overlooking children as household members with an agency of their own. Drawing from a social practice theory perspective, this research explores how children act as an intersection point of domestic practices and shape energy demand in urban China. A high-density neighbourhood in Jinan, Shandong Province, is used as a case study. Based on in-depth interviews in 13 households and “home tours” with the participants, the findings show how the children have indoor-based, digitalised, and energy-intensive lifestyles. These middle-class families with an “education fever” prioritise the children's needs and their schooling in particular, resulting in a high number of individual appliances, used in private rooms, in large apartments with pre-installed building services. The parents and grandparents expressed concerns about their children's indoor lifestyle, and the implications for health and the environment but these concerns were overruled by prioritising the education. Drawing from the concept of Schatzki's material-arrangement bundles and Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital, this study perceives children's education as a form of cultural and social capital that, in this specific socio-spatial context, further drives domestic energt demand, despite recent improvements in energy efficiency of appliances and the building fabric. The paper calls for including children in energy studies and more comprehensive research approaches to better understand family dynamics, children's domestic practices and energy use.

Physical home-learning environments of traditional and non-traditional students during the COVID pandemic: exploring the impact of learning space on students’ motivation, stress and well-being

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced higher education institutions to implement their programs in an online setting, different groups of students were influenced to different extents. In many cases, the main locus of learning moved to students' homes, and their learning experiences were suddenly contextualized in their residential situation and immediate physical learning environment. The present study consequently examines the role of physical learning environments on different factors influencing students’ learning when pursuing their study from at home. It contrasts the situation of traditional students in a higher education institution and non-traditional students in an academic continuing education institution, which address target groups with different living conditions and needs in learning support. Data were collected via an online survey sent to students enrolled in these two institutions, with a total of 353 students participating during a timeframe impacted by COVID-related lockdowns. We found that stress and well-being is strongly linked to the quality of the surrounding environment of the learning place, whereas perceived motivation is more strongly related to the quality of the learning place itself. How strongly students are affected by these factors is moderated by their overall socio-spatial context. Academic continuing education students are more resilient to sub-optimal physical learning environment than traditional students. Altering the design of the immediate learning environment consequently can help to mitigate factors that negatively impact students’ well-being and learning motivation, which is particularly important for traditional students, who primarily dedicate their time to pursuing their studies.

Shimizu elegy: capital, patriarchy, and desire for freedom in Naruse Mikio’s Yearning (1964)

ABSTRACT Naruse Mikio’s Yearning (Midareru) is a melodrama released in 1964, at the height of Japan’s high-speed economic growth. A commonly accepted reading of this film focuses on the intimate relationship between the protagonist Morita Reiko and her brother-in-law, but this article understands the significance of the film within its socioeconomic and sociospatial context, that is, the growing dominance of big-capital corporations in the distribution and retail industries and the transformation of space and spatial relations instigated by it. I first underscore that this is a film about a historically and geographically specific place, Shimizu in Shizuoka prefecture in the early 1960s, and then examine how it communicates the tension created by intense capitalist expansion in places and people in this provincial city. I read the protagonist’s departure from the family and the city as her search of freedom from the patriarchal reorganization of the family business in an increasingly competitive industrial society. Through this reading, I articulate the historically specific nature of this melodrama and exploit its potential as a text that mediates contemporary Japan’s experiences of capitalist expansion, patriarchy, and social relations—especially those related to gender—during high-speed growth.

The effect of politics on the formation of urban aesthetics, the case of Iran

Urban aesthetics is a complicated issue that needs further evaluation of its physical specifications in a city. This article examines urban aesthetics through the historical political patterns and urban planning and development process. The aim is to reveal the relationship between the formation of urban aesthetics, the urban planning process, and the political impact. Iran as the case of a developing country with a different socio-political context and national system is selected for this aim. Path-dependency analysis has been used as a methodology to provide a framework to understand urban aesthetics followed by different socio-political periods and planning processes. Three political periods have been selected for analysis in which the country gained most of its unprecedented changes in political, and social aspects. Analysis results demonstrated that urban aesthetics is more dependent on the political path dependency than the planning process while still the same planning approaches have been carried out in the country. • Performance systematically analyzing exogenous contingent events and trajectories in different historical/ political periods. • Performance systematically analyzing urban legal sources and regulations from the perspective of urban aesthetics. • Analyzing planning and legal sources in developing countries and in a different socio-spatial context. • Performance the involvement, development and continuity of different concepts of urban aesthetics. • Performance difference of developed and developing countries in the scope of urban aesthetics.

Designing the Socio-Spatial Context Urban Infill, Liveability, and Conviviality

This study tackles the design challenge of urban in fill development which arises from changes in the urban form and daily living experiences. Using the Web of Science to review relevant literature published over the last decade, we found a signi ficant gap in the study of in fill development: it overlooks liveability and conviviality. To fill this gap, an in fill project in Ard el Golf, Cairo, Egypt, was surveyed using ethnographic research comprising two surveys and semi-structured interviews with site visitors, workers, and residents, and spatial analysis of the changes before and after the project. The results highlight the critical role of functional neighbourhood changes based on their impact on residents', site workers', and users' perceptions of their environment. A six-step strategic framework is presented aggregating the social and morphological dimensions that can off er designers a be er means of confronting the consequences of urban in fill projects with respect to the socio-spatial context for liveable and convivial urban living.