Offering in-depth perspectives on factors such as local labour markets, housing and mobility, this book investigates centralization tendencies in Scandinavia and South East Europe that help shape regional development and act as a catalyst to creating regional inequalities.

Offering in-depth perspectives on factors such as local labour markets, housing and mobility, this book investigates centralization tendencies in Scandinavia and South East Europe that help shape regional development and act as a catalyst to creating regional inequalities.

The neighborhoods and the biophysical, political, and cultural environments all play a key role in affecting health outcomes of individuals. Unequal spatial distribution of resources such as clinics, hospitals, public transportation, fresh food markets, and schools could make some communities as a whole more vulnerable and less resilient to adverse health effects. This somber reality suggests that it is rather the question of "who you are depends upon where you are" and the fact that health inequality is both a people and a place concern. That is why health inequality needs to be investigated in a spatial setting to deepen our understanding of why and how some geographical areas experience poorer health than others. This book introduces how spatial context shapes health inequalities. Spatial Health Inequalities: Adapting GIS Tools and Data Analysis demonstrates the spatial health inequalities in six most important topics in environmental and public health, including food insecurity, birth health outcomes, infectious diseases, children’s lead poisoning, chronic diseases, and health care access. These are the topics that the author has done extensive research on and provides a detailed description of the topic from a global perspective. Each chapter identifies relevant data and data sources, discusses key literature on appropriate techniques, and then illustrates with real data with mapping and GIS techniques. This is a unique book for students, geographers, clinicians, health and research professionals and community members interested in applying GIS and spatial analysis to the study of health inequalities.

What exactly is spatial inequality? Why does it matter? And what should be the policy response to it? These questions have become important in recent years as the spatial dimensions of inequality have begun to attract considerable policy interest. In China, Russia, India, Mexico, and South Africa, as well as most other developing and transition economies, spatial and regional inequality - of economic activity, incomes, and social indicators - is on the increase. Spatial inequality is a dimension of overall inequality, but it has added significance when spatial and regional divisions align with political and ethnic tensions to undermine social and political stability. Also important in the policy debate is a perceived sense that increasing internal spatial inequality is related to greater openness of economies, and to globalization in general. Despite these important concerns, there is remarkably little systematic documentation of what has happened to spatial and regional inequality over the last twenty years. Correspondingly, there is insufficient understanding of the determinants of internal spatial inequality. This volume attempts to answer the questions posed above, drawing on data from twenty-five countries from all regions of the world. They bring together perspectives and expertise in development economics and in economic geography and form a well-researched introduction to an area of growing analytical and policy importance.

In this Element, we investigate how economic geography, the distribution of subnational economic endowments within a nation, shapes long-run patterns of inequality through its impact on the development of fiscal capacity. We present an argument that links economic geography to capacity through different types of industrialization processes. We show how early industrializers shape spatial distributions domestically by investing in productivity across their nations, and externally by reinforcing spatial polarization among late industrializers. We also show how differences in economic geography impact the process of capacity building, setting the stage for the modern politics of redistribution discussed in Volume II. We support this argument with descriptive data, case studies, and cross-national analyses.

Despite the emphasis of the European Regional Policy on territorial cohesion, regional disparities have been increasing within Europe in the past years. The metropolitan areas in almost all countries are considerably growing while regions outside of agglomerations are stagnating or even declining. Against this background this book aims to provide an understanding of the underlying processes of polarisation and related regional and local policies. This open access volume contributes to the debates about polarisation and regional development by focussing on questions of spatial justice, power distribution and policy transfer. Theoretical and empirically grounded contributions show that European policies are indeed reproducing socio-spatial inequalities instead of challenging them. The book shows further the existing potentials and limits of individuals, economic, political and civil society actors to respond to polarisation on the regional and local level. In this book conceptual thoughts on polarisation, regional policy and regional development are combined with empirical research and resulting implications for policymaking. As such, it is a valuable source for early career students and researchers as well as professionals in the field of regional and economic development, policy consultants, and policy makers.

"This is an introduction to spatial and regional inequality. Drawing on data from 25 countries from around the world, it examines the questions: What exactly is spatial inequality? Why does it matter? And what should be the policy response to it?"--Provided by publisher.