Spatial Inequality

The term spatial, when applied in the context of human geography, refers to the geographic dimensions of human relations and practices. The term inequality refers to the concept that relationships are uneven or unjust, reflecting differences in power, representation, mobility, and/or access to resources. The two terms combined, therefore, refer to the existence of an unevenness in the relationships between different places in a way that is qualitatively different, suggesting contrasts that may be viewed as morally unfair (e.g., selected neighborhoods within a city may have extensive access to municipal resources, whereas neighboring communities do not) and that also reflect discrepancies in power.

Developing out of research during the late 1970s in the area of welfare geography, which was particularly concerned with differential access to social and governmental services, the concept of spatial inequality has diversified substantially to include not only difference between places or countries but also difference within social groups in the same place. Drawing on Marxist theories, some geographers used the concept of uneven development to highlight the ways in which practices such as colonialism, capitalism, racism, and immigration policies have facilitated the ongoing economic and political differences between wealthy and low-income countries, for example, distinct sociospatial patterns of a global South and a global North.

Spatial inequalities exist at a variety of scales. This is illustrated through the work of feminist geographers who have examined the ways in which the geography of discriminatory—or unequal—practices, such as patriarchy, homophobia, and violence, are present at the levels of the body, street, town, region, government, and international relations. Assumptions about child care, such as when it is presumed that a nuclear family is the norm and that child care will be undertaken primarily by a mother at home, reflect a patriarchal ideology (i.e., a culture in which male dominance is asserted). This may be institutionalized through government policies (e.g., limited maternity leave, no paternity leave, no recognition of same-sex parenting policies), used in dominant images of the nation (e.g., those depicted in popular art or national crests), enacted at a local level in particular towns or cities (e.g., by having limited child care available at places of employment, by having public transportation that is difficult to access with a child's stroller), and embodied individually by parents (e.g., females being criticized for continuing with careers, males being critiqued for becoming full-time caregivers, parents with physical disabilities being discouraged from becoming parents, guilt being internalized due to peer pressure to perform certain “motherly” duties or activities in particular circumscribed places such as breastfeeding in public spaces and dressing in “appropriate” maternity clothing). All of these illustrate specific contexts in which gender inequalities become spatially[Page 454] manifested as work/home divisions, mobility limitations, narrowly defined performances of parents, and policy exclusions for female and male parents. These different scales of inequality may coexist, and may even contradict each other, while also working toward the ongoing exclusion and discriminatory treatment of specific social groups.

Human geographers have also studied the construction and maintenance of spatial inequalities in the context of economic investment and social infrastructures. One recent example can be seen in relation to the differential accessibility of healthcare in varying regional, rural, and urban settings for varying social groups with a range of physical abilities, particularly in relation to studies of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/ AIDS) and preventive healthcare and outreach service. This research has illustrated high costs, limited resources, and overstretched health centers in low-income countries (with rapidly increasing HIV infection rates), whereas relatively large-scale investment and availability of healthcare can be found in wealthier countries. Again, within countries, regions, and cities, geographers have shown that there appears to be inconsistent availability of educational programs and healthcare resources by district and region as well as by race, class, physical ability, and gender. These spatial (and social) inequalities are also seen as being demonstrative of wider economic, political, and historic power differentials.

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