Urban Inequality Research Articles

Decentralization and rural–urban income inequality: implications for inverted-U hypothesis of Pakistan

Decentralization and rural–urban income inequality: implications for inverted-U hypothesis of Pakistan

Embodied spatiality: mapping gendered exclusion and women’s embodied right to the city in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa

This study addresses the critical research inquiry surrounding the persistence of gendered urban inequalities and the subsequent exclusion of women in urban settings within the broader context of gender, spatiality, and embodiment. Using feminist geographical theory and informed by Henri Lefebvre’s concept of the right to the city, the study investigates how the spatial characteristics of public spaces, along with underlying gendered dynamics, engender discriminatory and exclusionary practices that restrict women’s right to the city and public lived space. The study collected data through a questionnaire, in-depth interviews, and a mapping exercise utilising open-access Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software. The participants were 166 individuals from the historically racially segregated areas of Umlazi, Chatsworth, and Durban Central in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The findings reveal women’s negative experiences and perceptions of the risk of victimisation, which stem from a form of ‘self-imposed exclusion’ from public spaces, thereby limiting their overall right to the city. The study also highlights the intersecting hierarchies of race, gender, age, and nationality that (re)produce intersectional exclusions, contributing to multiple barriers to access. In conclusion, the study demonstrates that women’s exclusion from public spaces and their limited rights to the city results from a complex interplay between embodied ‘self-imposed’ exclusions, intersectional dynamics, and spatial constraints, which collectively infringe their embodied right to the city.

Using a smart city framework to advance justice: applying an equity lens to compare air quality in neighbourhoods of different socioeconomic profiles

ABSTRACT The smart city framework, while initially received with enthusiasm, has been critiqued for reproducing urban inequalities rather than reducing marginalisation. This paper demonstrates how application of an equity lens within a smart city framework can advance justice by addressing air quality inequities in a diverse coastal city. We conducted a pilot study in which integrated air quality sensors are deployed for criteria pollutants in two contrasting neighbourhoods, to demonstrate that the smart city framework can be used with an equity lens for baseline data collection and analysis to support communities of colour in advocating on their own behalf. Communities of colour are disproportionately impacted by poor air quality, pollution exposure, and health burdens. Research shows that marginalised communities often lack air quality sensors installed by traditional regulatory measures. Thus, smart city technology using targeted deployment of air quality sensors can aid neighbourhood-level sampling, and data can be leveraged by marginalised communities for policy development to address inequities in pollution exposure and health impacts. In this study, air quality sensors were deployed and integrated with a web-based interactive platform called Community Resiliency Information Systems (CRIS) to compare a white, affluent neighbourhood with a marginalised, predominantly Black neighbourhood in Saint Petersburg, Florida. Data collected indicates significant differences in concentrations of air pollutants in the study neighbourhoods; exposure levels are higher in the poor, minority-dominated neighbourhood. CRIS facilitates two-way communication between residents and policy makers, demonstrating that careful application of technology can produce data to support community advocacy and address environmental inequalities. Key policy highlights The smart city framework integrated with air quality sensors has the potential to advance justice when applied through an equity lens. This pilot project demonstrates air quality inequities at neighbourhood level comparisons (affluent vs marginalised) in a coastal city – exposure levels are higher in the poor, minority-dominated neighbourhood. The CRIS platform facilitates two-way communication between residents and policy makers, demonstrating that careful application of technology can produce data to support community advocacy and address environmental inequalities.

Concealed exchanges: relational work in racially segregated housing markets

Abstract How do real-estate investors make decisions about where to purchase properties? In recent years, an increasing share of the market has gone to investors, making it critical that we understand the behaviors of these important actors. This study examines investment as a relational process. Through 74 interviews with real estate investors, as well as additional interviews with homeowners and renters in low- to middle-income neighborhoods in Baltimore, I find that strategic interactions and intimate relational work among professional and amateur investors are key to understanding how properties are sold. Professional investors cultivate bonds with new investors by identifying common goals and obstacles. They also use concealment strategies to sell homes, including: legal concealment, concealment through bundling, and concealment through brokers. Legal concealment involves using legal vehicles to transfer properties between owners. Concealment through bundling occurs when properties are bundled together to be sold in bulk. Finally, concealment through brokers entails finding brokers who can connect sellers to investors from other markets. These strategies obscure not only the nature of the relationship between buyers and sellers but also the quality of products being sold. The series of exchanges resemble how products are sold within direct-selling organizations and other predatory industries, which rely on a pyramid-like structure of sponsors and distributors. Furthermore, concealment strategies are more likely to happen in weaker markets and poorer neighborhoods where investor behavior is less constrained—this suggests that concealment has potential to increase urban inequality.

THE LIVING CITY: CULTURE, TRANSFORMATION, AND THE URBAN ENVI- RONMENT IN N. K. JEMISIN’S THE CITY WE BECAME

The paper examines the process of urban transformation in N. K. Jemisin’s novel, The City We Became. Through a close reading of the novel, the paper analyzes Jemisin’s portrayal of New York as a dynamic and constantly evolving entity that undergoes profound transformations throughout the narrative. Jemisin’s work offers a powerful and imaginative vision for how cities can be understood and represented in literature and beyond. The complex social, economic, and political forces actively shape cities are emphasized by presenting the city as a living and breathing character. The city will be viewed through Henri Lefebvre’s theory of the production of space, Edward Soja’s notion of postmetropolis, and Sharon Zukin’s conceptualization of the life and death of cities. Jemisin’s use of magical realism, intertextuality, and metaphorical language contribute to her vision of the city as a vibrant and multifaceted character that challenges and subverts dominant narratives surrounding race, gender, power, and urban inequality. By explor- ing the interplay between culture, urban theory, and literature, this paper offers a comprehen- sive and innovative perspective on the city and its ongoing transformation in the contemporary world.

Natural layers bearing urban inequality

Natural layers bearing urban inequality

Urban structure to determine equitable city growth for spatial justice: A case study of Chía-Bogotá, Colombia

The evolution of land use occupancy in various cities worldwide is swift. Land-use planning processes are still recent in most Latin American countries with significant socio-spatial inequalities. Due to rapid urban growth and real estate pressure, peri-urban areas of metropolises become susceptible to economic interests that can disrupt land use and municipal planning. Therefore, considering spatial justice, it is crucial to analyse possible future urban scenarios regarding socio-economic activities and their spatial distributions. This research seeks to define optimal locations and suitable urban growth areas, ensuring socio-spatial equity and justice. The study area is the municipality of Chia, on the outskirts of the metropolis of Bogota, Colombia, where the research proposes an analysis of urban morphology and the (social) intensity of activities and infrastructure. As a methodology, space syntax and the distribution of residential and non-residential activity data are applied through a predictive model. The study concludes that future mitigation of urban inequalities based on land use will be difficult to achieve owing to the location of urban sprawl areas.

The Ground Rent Machine: The Story of Race, Housing Inequality, and Dispossession in Baltimore, Maryland

In Baltimore, Maryland, more than 55,000 homes—roughly 30 percent of all residential plots—are subject to ground rent, a legacy of British feudal property law. Under this landlord–tenant system, the homeowner makes payments to the ground leaseholder, who maintains rights to the land. During the early 2000s, many Baltimoreans fell behind on their ground rent due to recessionary headwinds and were “ejected” from their homes as leaseholders took ownership (as collateral). Maryland lawmakers responded by passing housing protections in 2007, but several laws were overturned by the courts (Corma 2017). Using census and ground rent administrative data, we map the geography of ground rent in Baltimore. Our results reveal that originally a tool of class dispossession, ground rent became racialized in the 1950s and 1960s and today overwhelmingly affects Black communities and low-income households. Drawing on work by critical Marxist geographers, work on the production of decline, anti-Blackness, and property relations theory, we rely on a critical quantitative framework to illustrate how people, place, power structures, and relationality produce the pernicious and predatory “ground rent machine.” Telling the story of ground rent—a largely underexplored topic—illustrates how local racialized property regimes shape the geography of urban segregation and urban inequality.

Evaluating Urban Green Space Inequity to Promote Distributional Justice in Portland, Oregon

Access and exposure to urban green space—the combination of parks and vegetative cover in cities—are associated with various health benefits. As urban green space is often unequally distributed throughout cities, understanding how it is allocated across socio-demographic populations can help city planners and policy makers identify and address urban environmental justice and health equity issues. To our knowledge, no studies have yet combined assessments of park quality, park availability, and green cover to inform equitable urban green space planning. To this end, we developed a comprehensive methodology to identify urban green space inequities at the city scale and applied it in Portland, OR, USA. After auditing all public parks in Portland and gathering green cover data from publicly accessible repositories, we used a suite of statistical tests to evaluate distribution of parks and green cover across Census block groups, comprising race, ethnicity, income, and educational attainment characteristics. Right-of-way tree canopy cover was the most significant urban green space inequity identified in bivariate analysis (rs = −0.73). Spatial autoregressive models identified that right-of-way, private, and overall tree canopy cover (Nagelkerke pseudo-R2 = 0.66, 0.77, and 0.67, respectively) significantly decreased with the proportion of minoritized racial population and increased with median income. The results were then used to identify priority locations for specific urban green space investments. This research establishes a process to assess intra-urban green space inequities, as well as identify data-informed and spatially explicit planning priorities to promote health equity and environmental justice.

Discussions of Cancer Survivorship Care Needs: Are There Rural versus Urban Inequities?

Rural cancer survivors may face greater challenges receiving survivorship care than urban cancer survivors. To test for rural versus urban inequities and identify other correlates of discussions about cancer survivorship care with healthcare professionals. Data are from the 2017 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), which included a cancer survivorship supplement. Adult survivors were asked if they discussed with a healthcare professional 5 components of survivorship care: need for follow-up services, lifestyle/health recommendations, emotional/social needs, long-term side effects, and a summary of treatments received. The Behavioral Model of Health Services guided the inclusion of predisposing, enabling, and need factors in ordered logit regression models of each survivorship care variable. A significantly lower proportion of rural than urban survivors (42% rural, 52% urban) discussed in detail the treatments they received, but this difference did not persist in the multivariable model. Although 69% of rural and 70% of urban ssurvivors discussed in detail their follow-up care needs, less than 50% of both rural and urban survivors discussed in detail other dimensions of survivorship care. Non-Hispanic Black race/ethnicity and time since treatment were associated with lower odds of discussing 3 or more dimensions of survivorship care. This study found only a single rural/urban difference in discussions about survivorship care. With the exception of discussions about the need for follow-up care, rates of discussing in detail other dimensions of survivorship care were low among rural and urban survivors alike.

Erosion of the Capital City Advantage in Child Survival and Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Intervention Coverage in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The place of residence is a major determinant of RMNCH outcomes, with rural areas often lagging in sub-Saharan Africa. This long-held pattern may be changing given differential progress across areas and increasing urbanization. We assessed inequalities in child mortality and RMNCH coverage across capital cities and other urban and rural areas. We analyzed mortality data from 163 DHS and MICS in 39 countries with the most recent survey conducted between 1990 and 2020 and RMNCH coverage data from 39 countries. We assessed inequality trends in neonatal and under-five mortality and in RMNCH coverage using multilevel linear regression models. Under-five mortality rates and RMNCH service coverage inequalities by place of residence have reduced substantially in sub-Saharan Africa, with rural areas experiencing faster progress than other areas. The absolute gap in child mortality between rural areas and capital cities and that between rural and other urban areas reduced respectively from 41 and 26 deaths per 1000 live births in 2000 to 23 and 15 by 2015. Capital cities are losing their primacy in child survival and RMNCH coverage over other urban areas and rural areas, especially in Eastern Africa where under-five mortality gap between capital cities and rural areas closed almost completely by 2015. While child mortality and RMNCH coverage inequalities are closing rapidly by place of residence, slower trends in capital cities and urban areas suggest gradual erosion of capital city and urban health advantage. Monitoring child mortality and RMNCH coverage trends in urban areas, especially among the urban poor, and addressing factors of within urban inequalities are urgently needed.

(En)gendering Development: Mapping Spatial Contours of Urban Inequality in Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Extending feminist geographic endeavours in the present geopolitical conjuncture, this critical intervention calls into question the everyday gendered geographies of Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) in their contextual heterogeneity. In the epoch of conspicuous consumption, women-dominated shopping malls in the Gulf space can be read as material-discursive sites in and through which gendered belonging is (re)constructed. Paradoxically, frenetic economic development is marked by deeply entrenched logics of segregation, unearthing conditions of unbelonging. In particular, urbanity is predicated upon the abjection of ‘bachelors’ (low-wage immigrant men of South Asian descent) from the Emirati body politic. I then employ intersectional frameworks to counter-map the affective contours of Dubai’s urban sexscape, where spatially and temporally provisional moments of queer existence (re)surface at nighttime. Similarly, intersectional feminist geographies of sex work grapple with existing and emergent strands of spatial inequality in ways a single-axis framework cannot hope to exhaust. Whilst sexed/gendered/racialised bodies are hierarchically stratified in Emirati moral economies of transactional sex, sex worker subjectivities at once refuse rigidly boxed categories by being continually reworked at the local, national and global levels.

Revealing urban greenspace accessibility inequity using the carrying capacity-based 3SFCA method and location big data

Equitable access to greenspace is increasingly essential for sustainable cities worldwide. However, the traditional 2SFCA (Two-Step Floating Catchment Area) method ignores the match between recreation visits and carrying capacity and thus fails to detect the greenspace accessibility inequality. We measured the greenspace capacity based on location big data and further proposed a 3SFCA-based measurement method for the accessibility inequality of greenspaces. The results demonstrated that (1) the carrying capacity (carrying area and greenspace type) is the main driving factor for greenspace accessibility; (2) the spatial inequality (Gini coefficient=0.67) in the greenspace accessibility existed at three scales (community > subdistrict > district); (3) the high demand for comprehensive parks by residents leads to general inequalities in greenspace access, while the low supply of community parks causes unequal access to greenspaces for disadvantaged groups; (4) 2SFCA overestimated 85 % of the greenspace recreation carrying area, leading to a significant overestimation of the community park accessibility and disadvantaged groups’ accessibility to greenspaces; (5) the 3SFCA revealed that the visitor number (2,993 p) exceeded the carrying capacity (2,987 p) of greenspaces, and community parks faces interference from recreational usage. These findings help to plan more equitable greenspaces and promote sustainable development in cities and society.

Valuing the Disamenity of Open Dumpsites: A Sri Lankan Case Study

Disposal of municipal solid waste in open dumpsites remains widespread throughout the developing world. While harm to local environments and public health may seem apparent, the lack of credible estimates of damages from open dumpsites is a major reason for their continued use. This paper estimates the disamenity damages imposed by an open dumpsite in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on nearby property owners using hedonic regression methods and a novel data set collected for the purpose. We find that property values increase by 10% for every additional 100 m of distance from the edge of the dumpsite and thus provide the first credible estimate of costs imposed by open dumping in a developing country. As open dumpsites are often sited in less affluent areas, our results suggest that such sites are likely exacerbating urban inequities in urban agglomerations across the developing world.

Racist dogs and classist rats?

In cities across the world, animals reflect, reproduce and transform urban inequalities – yet their role in mediating social hierarchies remains undertheorized. Urban scholars have begun to highlight the importance of infrastructures and technologies in configuring access to essential goods and services. While this research provides key insights into how non-human entities mediate unequal relations, it has largely overlooked how certain animals – „political animals“ – also co-produce inequalities. This article focuses on two critical urban domains, security and public health, that are often characterized by stark inequalities, and takes the role of key animals within these domains – dogs and rats, respectively – as a new analytical entry-point. Security dogs are socialized to identify threatening individuals on the basis of classed and raced markers. Rats thrive in upscale neighborhoods with historical architecture and abundant green space – yet the public health risks and the stigma associated with these rodents may disproportionately affect low-income residents. Drawing on research on security dogs in Kingston, Jamaica and rats in Amsterdam, this talk discusses the role of animals in the formation of sociospatial boundaries, and the distribution of resources and risks across urban spaces and populations. Focusing on the interactions these two types of „political animals“ have with both humans and infrastructure, it sets out a research agenda for studying how animals’ everyday encounters with their cultural and material environments combine to result in (in-)equitable social outcomes.

The metropolis of network capital: socio-spatial mobilities and urban inequities

Resumo A circulação de pessoas, objetos e informações é constitutiva da própria definição de cidade. Mas que assimetrias de acesso são geradas por esses movimentos e que regimes de mobilidade os hierarquizam no mundo globalmente conectado? Tomando as mobilidades como objeto e lente analítica, proponho a noção de “metrópole do capital de rede” para dar conta de territorialidades que se organizam em um continuum entre espaços físicos e digitais; nas quais o movimento em múltiplas escalas se torna uma “forma de habitar”; e que encontram na ambivalência da mobilidade – ao mesmo tempo direito e dispositivo coercitivo – seu principal fator de estratificação. Essas reflexões epistemológicas pressupõem que as cidades são espacialidades relacionais e politicamente disputadas de mobilidades sistêmicas, expressão das intersecções entre infraestruturas, materialidades e signos.

Sea Level Rise and Urban Inequality

Sea level rise threatens coastal cities around the world. Will it exacerbate inequality in these already unequal places? The rich may adapt by moving to higher ground, threby bidding up prices and pushing the poor elsewhere. I study this spatial sorting with a simple quantitative model and granular data from Jakarta, a flood-prone megacity of 32 million. I find that sea level rise can triple inequality in flood exposure.

Aggravating or alleviating? Smart city construction and urban inequality in China

A series of studies have been conducted in recent years to address the academic and policy debate on smart cities, some of which argue that the adoption of smart technologies to manage cities can exacerbate inequalities in urban development by favoring the classes that benefit from this model. However, to date, the links between smart cities and urban inequality (UI) has never been empirically tested at the city level of statistical inference. Therefore, with a combination of the difference-in-difference (DID) model and heterogeneity-robustness estimate, a quasi-natural experiment concerned with China's smart city policy was carried out. The following are the primary conclusions: First, smart city construction alleviates urban inequality. Following several robustness tests, the finding is still reliable. Second, the effect of smart city construction on inequality is heterogeneous. Third, there is a significant positive spatial spillover effect of the impact of smart city construction on inequality. Therefore, it is suggested to formulate targeted smart city development strategies from the following aspects: strengthening the overall planning and strategic layout of smart city projects, focusing on social equity and protecting the interests of vulnerable groups, improving regional cooperation mechanisms, attracting and cultivating innovative talents, giving priority to the impact of heterogeneous cities, and emphasizing the participation and autonomy of grassroots communities, so as to tap the potential of digital technology in sustainable cities and societies.

Urban Political Structure and Inequality: Political Economy Lessons from Early Modern German Cities

What was the impact of urban political structure on preindustrial wealth inequality? I document that more closed political institutions were associated with higher inequality in a panel of early-modern German cities. To investigate the mechanisms behind that macro-relationship, I construct a unique individual-level panel dataset on personal wealth and political office-holding in the city-state of Nördlingen (1579–1700). I employ a difference-in-differences setting to show that political elites enriched themselves substantially, increasing inequality. To address endogeneity concerns, I exploit the Thirty-Years’ War as a shock to elites’ potential for enrichment from public office. Officials manipulated this crisis to enrich themselves further.

Rural–urban inequalities in health care utilization in Bhutan: a decomposition analysis

Background and objectiveOn the trajectory towards universal health coverage in Bhutan, health equity requires policy attention as significant disparities exist between urban and rural health outcomes. This paper examines health services utilization patterns, inequalities and their socio-economic determinants in rural and urban areas and decomposes the factors behind these differences.MethodsWe used the Bhutan Living Standard Survey 2017 to profile health services utilization patterns and equalities. We employed two different decomposition analyses: decomposition of mean differences in utilization using the Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition framework and differences in the income-related distribution in utilization using recentered influence function regressions between rural and urban areas.ResultsSignificant differences exist in the type of outpatient services used by the rural and urban population groups, with those living in rural areas having 3.4 times higher odds of using primary health centers compared to outpatient hospital care. We find that the use of primary health care is pro-poor and that outpatient hospital resources is concentrated among the more affluent section of the population, with this observed inequality consistent across settings but more severe in rural areas. The rural–urban gap in utilization is primarily driven by income and residence in the eastern region, while income-related inequality in utilization is influenced, aside from income, by residence in the central region, household size, and marriage and employment status of the household head. We do not find evidence of significant mean differences in overall utilization or inequality in utilization of inpatient health care services.ConclusionsWhile the differences in average contacts with health services are insignificant, there are prominent differences in the level of services availed and the associated inequality among rural and urban settings in Bhutan. Besides, while there are obvious overlaps, factors influencing income-related inequality are not necessarily the same as those driving the utilization gaps. Cognizance of these differences may lead to better informed, targeted, and potentially more effective future research and policies for universal health coverage.