Socio-spatial Differentiation Research Articles

Formal education as a contested pastoral adaptation pathway: insights from southern Kenya

In dryland pastoral environments, political and geographical marginalization has historically led to development strategies that poorly account for individual and communities’ spatial and socio-economic realities. These development legacies, including long-standing epistemic biases in defining what should be adapted, are often insufficiently considered within adaptation research and practice. This article sets out to analyze the historical emergence and enactment of formal education as a contested adaptation pathway in southern Kenya. For this, I combine the strengths of the historically situated analyses of the pathways scholarship and feminist political ecology’s attention to the performance of intersectional relations of power in everyday livelihood practices. I bring together both archival data and qualitative primary data from focus group discussions (n = 16) and individual interviews (n = 122) conducted in three pastoral communities. The results exemplify the ways that non-climatic factors, such as increased formal school enrolment, (re)shape everyday livelihood practices and social aspirations, molding the current adaptation space. Notably, enacting formal education as an adaptation pathway requires one to navigate increasing cash pressures, mobility, and labor constraints. Wealth disparities, gendered norms, and geographies intersect to shape patterns of vulnerability, with poorer pastoralists residing further away from school centers facing difficult trade-offs on their time and resources. Understanding pathways enactments contributes to problematizing current logics of development and adaptation needs, while yielding important information on socio-spatial differentiation processes in pastoral systems. It also opens the space for further research to use these critical insights to identify alternative adaptation pathways that support more just transformations towards sustainability.

Becoming (Hyper-) Aware of Cross-Border Interdependencies – Tracing Public Representations of Czech Commuters on the Bavarian Border

ABSTRACT Treating borders as practices of socio-spatial differentiation has made it possible for researchers to critically engage with their selective constructions of “us” and “them.” Against the background of the pandemic, the significance of this perspective appears far from being exhausted. This paper mobilizes the well-established notion of bordering, ordering and othering to examine the public representation of Czech commuters in the Bavarian border region. Based on a search for the term “cross-border commuter,” the content of two local newspapers is analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively over a period from 2006 to 2021. The analysis shows a fundamental shift in the coverage of Czech commuters as a result of the pandemic, indicating a new (hyper-) awareness of their increased importance on the Bavarian side. It also highlights spatio-temporal differences in their public representation and links them to changing infection rates as well as the multi-scaled efforts of b/ordering the pandemic.

Investigating socio-spatial differentiation for metro travelers using smart card data: Older people vs. others

As population aging has been an issue worldwide, the mobility of older people have attracted the attention of scholars from urban planning, transport geography, and social science. However, few have investigated socio-spatial differentiation among mobility groups, considering their daily needs and activity spaces. To fill this research gap, we conducted a comparative analysis of socio-spatial differentiation, based on individual activity spaces. We used smart card data from Kunming, China, to identify selected individuals’ residential locations and travel patterns, and evaluate their accessed activity space. We performed a disaggregated analysis of the individual activity space, and then aggregated the activity counts on each grid. This study found that the residential locations of older metro travelers are significantly different from those of other metro travelers. In addition, socio-spatial differentiation was found to exist due to different daily requirements. The results were confirmed in three LASSO models with built environment variables. These findings are useful in urban and transportation planning to improve elder-friendly services.

Socio-Spatial Differentiation, Border and Identity at Kilis

Sınırlar özellikle son 200 yıldır modern ulus-devletlerin en önemli varlık göstergeleri olarak ön plana çıkmıştır. Siyasetin coğrafyaya en net tezahür ettiği alanlar olarak sınırlar, çizildiği andan itibaren aynı zamanda iki farklı coğrafyanın inşasını da başlatmıştır. Ortak bir toplumsal kimlik ve vatan algısı, ulus-devletlerin sınırları içinde kurulmuştur. Bu makale, tarih boyunca ortak bir coğrafyayı paylaşan toplumların 100 yıl önce çizilen bir sınırla bölünmesi sonrasında yaşadığı sosyo-mekânsal ayrışmayı konu edinmiştir. 1921 yılında Fransızlarla imzalanan Ankara Antlaşmasıyla çizilen bu sınırlarla birlikte iki ayrı coğrafyanın oluşumu da başlamıştır. Sınırın her iki tarafında farklı strateji, söylem ve anlatılarla farklı ulus-devlet inşa süreci yaşanmıştır. Bu araştırma Kilis’te, sınırın yarattığı sosyo-mekânsal ayrışmanın hangi söylem ve anlatılarla inşa edildiğini analiz etmektedir. Çalışma kapsamında sınır bölgesinde uzun süre ikamet etmiş ve sınırın her iki tarafına dair deneyimleri olan yedi katılımcı ile derinlemesine mülakat yapılmıştır. Yapılan mülakatlarda katılımcıların sınır algıları ve sınırın her iki tarafına dair söylem ve anlatıları analiz edilerek sosyo-mekânsal ayrışmanın izleri aranmıştır. Elde edilen bulgular, bu sosyal ve mekânsal ayrımların kimlik/kültür, din ve tarih/ekonomi başlıklı üç ana tema üzerinden gerçekleştiğini göstermiştir. Kilis’te sınırla kurulan ilişki her zaman çok boyutlu ve çok karmaşık olmuştur. Sınır bir yönüyle ekonomik engel yaratmışken, bir başka yönüyle de Kilis için ekonomik bir fırsata dönüşmüştür. Sınıra hem karşı durulmuş hem de söylem ve pratiklerle sınır yeniden inşa edilmiştir. Sınır her şeyden öte ortak bir coğrafyayı sosyal ve mekânsal olarak bölerek iki farklı coğrafya yaratmıştır.

Revealing the heterogeneity of social capital in shrinking cities from a social infrastructure perspective: Evidence from Hegang, China

Population loss and heterogeneous physical-spatial decline have created variability in the urban shrinkage process as well as socio-spatial differentiation. Social infrastructure and the social capital it generates are critical stock resources that determine residents' access to social support and their ability to cope with shrinkage. In this study, we investigated the heterogeneity of social capital in Hegang, a typical shrinking city in Northeast China, from a social infrastructure perspective. We collected social capital evaluation data using a questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and difference analysis methods were used to explore the relationship between categories and attributes of social infrastructure, user groups and social capital. We further revealed the mechanisms associated with social capital heterogeneity. The results showed the following. (1) Significant associations were found between the categories and attributes of social infrastructure and social capital heterogeneity. Social capital was provided by a small number of social infrastructures. The level of social capital inside the community was generally lower than outside the community. (2) Compared with bridging social capital, bonding social capital was the dominant stock resource in shrinking cities. The middle class dominated the social structure and held more bonding social capital. This study provides beneficial evidence for research related to the inequality of shrinkage processes and socio-spatial differentiation.

Provincializing “web traffic”: data imaginaries and vernacular construction ofliuliangin China

AbstractThis article dehomogenizes the concept of “web traffic” through a keywords-informed approach. It attends to how, in China, the term for “web traffic,” liuliang (流量), is utilized in rich and creative ways. Instantiating bottom-up epistemic practices, the taxonomies, collocations, and wisdom related to liuliang reveal alternative and locally relevant ways in which people imagine, apprehend, and deal with digital media and data in everyday life. They unleash a set of reinvigorating vocabulary for the theorization of web traffic—liquidity, manipulability, portability, socio-spatial differentiation, ideological valence, and mystified power, among others. These new lenses enrich a genuinely global understanding of digital media, enable those in the Global North to comparatively rethink their taken-for-granted experiences of datafication, and democratize the making of media knowledges by addressing the inequality between the Global North and South(s), between experts and non-experts.

From protected spaces to hybrid spaces: Mobilizing A place-centered enabling approach for justice-sensitive grassroots innovation studies

Sustainability transitions research to date has paid insufficient attention to the intrinsic benefits of grassroots innovations (GIs) in disadvantaged contexts and to issues of structural inequalities, grounded experiences of unsustainability, and place-based politics. This paper takes inspiration from critical transition studies to address these gaps by reconceptualizing grassroots niches as hybrid spaces involving both socio-spatial differentiation and socio-technical reconfigurations linked to capitalist industrialization. It then proposes a place-centered enabling approach to investigate how grassroots actors create, mobilize for, and assign meanings to GIs. Three interrelated analytical foci directing the approach – the development history of the host community, its place-framing, and its place-making politics – are applied to a case study of a community energy project in rural Taiwan. By demonstrating GIs’ potential to empower marginalized communities to pursue their place-based visions for sustainability, this paper adds socio-spatial and structural insights to discussions on the transformative politics of GIs.

Comparative Study on Socio-Spatial Structures of the Typical Plain Cities of Chengdu and Beijing in Transitional China

China’s socioeconomic transformation and rapid urbanization since the end of the 20th Century have had an important impact on the social spatial structure of large cities. Social differentiation within cities is becoming increasingly prominent. Using detailed data gathered by the Fifth National Population Census of 2000, this study compares the social spatial structure and dynamic mechanisms of the core areas of the cities of Beijing and Chengdu. Factorial ecology analysis is used at the mesoscale to explore the following research questions: ‘How did factors shape the social spaces of two cities with similar topography but at different stages of development during China’s transition from a planned to a market economy?’; and ‘Are the traditional Western theories of socio-spatial interpretation equally applicable to China?’. The results show that Chengdu exhibits a combination of a concentric circle, fan-shaped, and multi-core socio-spatial structure, while Beijing shows a fan-shaped structure. In 2000, influenced by its overall level and stage of socioeconomic development, Beijing was experiencing a faster socio-spatial transformation than Chengdu, and the driving effect of capital on social differentiation and spatial competition was more obvious. The main dynamic mechanisms driving the formation of socio-spatial structures in Beijing and Chengdu include the natural environmental foundation, historical inheritance, urban planning, housing policies, and international influence. The three major variables in the study of traditional Western social spaces, namely economy, family, and ethnic status, were confirmed as applicable to our two case study cities with socioeconomic status as measured by occupation and housing conditions exerting the strongest effect. This perspective of comparing different cities in the same transitional period offers unique insights in identifying the key drivers of socio-spatial differentiation and polarization and their relative magnitude of effect, while enriching the catalog of empirical urban social space research both in China and in the rest of the world.

Time Allocation and the Activity-Space-Based Segregation of Different Income Groups: A Case Study of Nanjing

Time allocation is closely related to life quality and is a potential indicator of urban space utilization and sociospatial differentiation. However, existing time allocation studies focus on how time is allocated to various activities but pay less attention to where individuals allocate their time. In the context of China’s transformation, this study examines the differences in time allocation in different urban spaces between low- and non-low-income groups based on two methods, descriptive statistics and social area analysis. The results show that low-income participants’ daily activities (especially work) are highly dependent on the central city area. However, they are at a disadvantage in accessing the central city area. Nevertheless, non-low-income individuals have diversified activity spaces and can better choose locations according to the purpose of activities and make fuller use of various types of urban areas. This study indicates that there are social differences in time allocation and urban space utilization among different income groups. The results obtained with regression models reveal that in addition to income, activity characteristics and built environment characteristics are significant factors affecting the differences. Social policies should support the equitable distribution of urban resources for different social groups, especially for vulnerable groups who live in affordable housing.

Vertical segregation in the apartment blocks of Athens and Budapest: A comparative study

Contemporary urban societies are experiencing growing income inequality and rising socio-spatial differentiation. The implication of space in the reproduction of inequality has been extensively discussed in the literature; however, the social consequences of spatial hierarchies at the microscale are largely neglected. Among these hierarchies, the unequal distribution of socio-economic groups by floors in apartment buildings (i.e. vertical segregation) is probably the major form of micro-segregation. In this study, the patterns of vertical segregation in Athens and Budapest were investigated using microdata from the 2011 Greek and Hungarian censuses. The research findings reveal that the level of vertical segregation varies according to the diversity of quality within segments of the housing stock in both cities, with older buildings being more vertically segregated. Moreover, the study demonstrates that despite differences in the broader socio-economic and political framework and housing systems, the vertical segregation of occupational groups follows similar patterns in both cities, where high-status groups tend to occupy upper levels and lower-class people are more concentrated at lower levels. The findings of this study provide an empirical basis for the analysis of social mix produced in different contextual frameworks of vertical segregation and raise questions about urban policies that can reduce the negative effects of micro-segregation for those who enjoy social mix at the expense of low housing quality in the affordable part of the stock.

Socio-spatial differentiation in a Latin American metropolis: urban structure, residential mobility, and real estate in the high-income cone of Santiago de Chile

ABSTRACT The High-Income Cone (HIC) is characteristic of the urban structure of Latin-American metropolises, consisting of a delimited area of the city where inhabitants of high socioeconomic status are located, consolidating the patterns of social segregation and inequality that are typical of those societies. Despite the urban transformations experienced by the metropolises of the continent in the last decades, little study has been done to understand the internal dynamics of HICs, which are usually considered a socially homogeneous space. This article delves into the internal complexities of the HIC of Greater Santiago, investigating its residential mobility processes and distinguishing between traditional and recent inhabitants, or ‘inheritors’ and ‘achievers’. Our results indicate the presence of parallel processes of residential mobility, where ‘achievers’ are concentrated in the apartments located in the pericentral zone of the HIC, while ‘inheritors’ move to the houses located in the extreme east. This process of permeability and filtering is conditioned by the recent trends of neoliberal urban densification and expansion, where the construction of more accessible buildings allows the arrival of certain people to the pericentral areas of the HIC, while the more exclusive houses and gated-communities far east are more accessible for inheritors.

Brazilian Migration Regime and Differential Control of International Mobility during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This article examines the effects of international mobility restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil from March 2020 to October 2021. We argue that a peculiar migration and border regime was established in this period, which did not totally suspend the established norms but instead enforced selective hypervigilance, placing under exception determined places and groups of migrants. We conducted an exploratory qualitative study by interviewing migrant residents and examining the totality of restrictive normative ordinances produced by the Brazilian government to control international cross-border circulation. We also explored the Federal Police data on deportations through the pandemic period. We state that there has been an excessive growth of deportations, especially in the border areas. The border closure thus created a normative basis for socio-spatial differentiation of migration control, enhancing vigilance in border zones and illegalizing migrants in non-gateway localities.

Remaking urban divides: Shifting patterns of neighborhood differentiation in Bilbao, Spain

ABSTRACT Intensifying social and spatial divisions have been on the rise in cities since the 1980s. This trend has evolved in a context of increasing socioeconomic inequality and is exacerbated by the effects of the last economic crisis and austerity policies. Understanding the differential impact of these processes on vulnerable social groups and urban areas is crucial for developing effective policy responses to the challenges of social exclusion and neighborhood decline. This paper examines the spatial dimensions of rising socioeconomic inequality in Bilbao, Spain. Using Census Data and a multivariate approach, it analyzes shifting patterns of socio-spatial differentiation in the city during two decades of intense urban restructuring and regeneration dynamics. The results present a characterization of Bilbao’s neighborhoods based on a set of variables that capture various aspects of neighborhood differences, demographics, socioeconomic status and housing attributes, and their evolution, revealing a two-dimensional factorial structure. Neighborhoods are grouped according to these two factorial axes that capture the structure of correlations among the variables. Subsequently, the analysis focuses on a selected number of “extreme” neighborhoods to identify patterns of convergence/divergence and the driving factors behind them, including structural trends and policy initiatives implemented during the two decades considered.

Sociospatial Differentiation in Stalinist Moscow

ABSTRACTIn 1917, the Bolsheviks took power in Russia under the banner of equality. Within the city, their aspiration to eliminate the core‐periphery sociospatial disparities resulted in dividing Moscow's privileged historic centre among its peripheral districts. This attempt to design districts of similar socio‐economic composition was short‐lived. Already in the 1930s, corresponding with the rise of the Stalinist state, the city centre partially re‐appeared in the form of the newly established smaller sectorial districts that were eliminated only after Stalin's death. Utilizing previously classified archival data of the 1939 population census, this paper sheds light on the sociospatial differentiation of Stalinist Moscow by comparing its central districts to the rest of the city as well as to the Bolshevik zoning of the 1920s. This analysis posits that the Bolshevik ideal of territorial equality was not achieved: politically, ethnically and socially, Stalinist Moscow in the late 1930s remained spatially unequal.

Spatial evolution and influencing factors of religious places from a socio-spatial perspective: An empirical analysis of Christianity in China.

The mismatch between the supply and demand of religious places has resulted from a lack of management, population mobility, and urban socio-spatial differentiation. Furthermore, the identity of religious groups and the localized characteristics of their behavioral practices continue to dominate the evolution of religious places. Therefore, this study analyzed the spatio-temporal patterns of Christian activity places, and further studied the characteristics and mechanisms of various influencing factors on the spatial distribution of places using a geographically weighted regression model from a socio-spatial perspective. The following results were obtained: (1) Christian activity places form a distribution pattern of circling aggregation within the core area and polycentric dispersion outside the core area. There is a certain coupling relationship between spatio-temporal patterns of places and marketization in Yiwu City. (2) The spatial differentiation pattern of influencing factors has an obvious circle-layer characteristic. The regression coefficients of population mobility, age structure, public services, and jobs-housing space are larger, and social structure and spatial resource allocation are becoming the main driving forces of spatial differentiation. (3) Due to the differences in spatial resource allocation and believers’ behavioral choices, the above factors have distinct differences in urban core areas, urban-rural transition areas and rural areas.

Mapping Digital Discourses of the Capital Region of Finland

This article discusses the three Finnish city names Helsinki, Espoo, and Vantaa, and the urban discourses that surround them. The study reveals patterns of socio-spatial differentiation by examining what meanings people attach to these capital region cities and investigating how these meanings are expressed in online discourses. Using the methodological approach of corpus-assisted onomastics (CAO), this study incorporates onomastics, geographical information systems (GIS), and corpus linguistics. This interdisciplinary research also examines how corpus-assisted discourse studies (CADS) and GIS can be combined to reveal and visualize the contextual information and discursive patterns of toponyms. For this investigation, a data set of 2.7 billion words was collected from the Suomi24 Corpus, one of the biggest discussion fora in Finland. The use of social media corpus as a data source increases the authenticity of this research, as the data was not collected specifically for this study. The analysis reveals that the most frequent digital discourses about the cities refer to places and directions, housing, and mobility. The occurrences differ quantitatively and qualitatively between each city. This paper paves the way for future onomastic studies to research actual name usage using this new methodology. Knowledge gained from such research may not only enrich the field of onomastics, but also facilitate more socially sustainable urban planning.

The historical Sudetenland border and the current socio-spatial differentiation of Czechia: a quantitative look at the long-term impact of institutional changes

The expulsion of Germans after 1945 and the subsequent resettlement of the borderlands are among the most important processes that affected spatial distribution of population in Czechia during the 20th century. Although the former Sudetenland border existed officially only shortly, its effect on the socio-geographical organization of society is still apparent, even more than 50 years later. The border could be conceptualized as a phantom border which, despite its non-existence, impacts regional differences. The aim of the presented article is to evaluate the relationship of the former Sudetenland border with the current socio-spatial distribution of indicators related to regional identity, social stability, and human capital, using spatial and quantitative methods. The data are from the 2011 census and were analysed at the level of municipalities, which enabled a close examination of the effects of border proximity at the local level. A strong effect was confirmed for all indicators, proving the importance of historical context when interpreting the current socio-spatial differentiation.

Examining socio-spatial differentiation under housing reform and its implications for mobility in urban China

Housing reform in socialist China has incurred considerable restructuring and transformation of urban space and society. Yet its specific socio-spatial outcomes have not been fully investigated from the perspective of housing type at the meso- and micro-levels. This study attempts to fill the gap by examining the nature and magnitude of the consequences of housing reform and the corresponding effects on mobility. Specifically, based on census data and a mobility survey, this paper combines statistical breakdowns and structural equation modeling to capture the socio-spatial differentiation of urban structure resulting from housing reform and its influences on individual vehicle kilometers traveled (VKT) and transportation walking. The results reveal that: (1) different types of housing tend to feature internally homogeneous populations in terms of socio-economic composition and socio-psychological condition, with pronounced social stratification; (2) residents in different types of housing display dramatically different travel styles, with substantial mobility inequities; (3) social differentiation appears to have spatial determinants; in particular spatial segregation contributes to increasing social exclusion; (4) the effects of spatial and social characteristics on mobility are led by housing type; and (5) individual mobility patterns are shaped by the joint influences of spatial and social dimensions of housing differentiation. The findings contribute to further understanding of socio-spatial differentiation in countries with a transitional housing market, suggesting that the design of land-use policies should recognize their social effects and that urban mobility planning practices should deliver sustainability that serves a diverse population, including in particular disadvantaged groups in public and replacement housing. This study serves as a mirror to observe the urban transition compared to other political economies and adds additional richness and diversity to the theoretical debates on the issue of socio-spatial differentiation and empirical evidence on residential and mobility inequities across global contexts.

Unraveling the multi-scalar residential segregation and socio-spatial differentiation in China: A comparative study based on Nanjing and Hangzhou

Unraveling the multi-scalar residential segregation and socio-spatial differentiation in China: A comparative study based on Nanjing and Hangzhou

Geopolitical boundaries and urban borderlands in an Ethiopian frontier city

ABSTRACT Recent approaches to urban borderlands employ border studies theories to analyze urban socio-spatial differentiation. Such approaches highlight how patterns of segregation generate not only social divisions, but also new interactions and connections. This article moves beyond analytic parallels between geopolitical borders and urban borderlands by tracing connections between changing border regimes and urban landscapes in Africa. Drawing on fieldwork in eastern Ethiopia, we show how shifting meanings and enforcement practices at Ethiopia’s international and subnational borders reshaped the socio-spatial landscape of Jigjiga, capital of Ethiopia’s Somali Regional State. The re-drawing of Ethiopia’s internal borders through federalism in 1991 altered spatial enactments of identity in the ethnically-divided city. Since 2010, new approaches to border governance have driven a shift from urban ethnic polarization toward class-oriented differentiation. We mobilize a trans-scalar analytic that theorizes geopolitical borders and urban borderlands as intertwined milieus where groups create and regulate connections, mobilities, and resource circulations.