Spatial Inequality,Foreign Investment,and Economic Transition in Bulgaria*

This study analyzes the possibility of increased regional economic inequality in Bulgaria following the collapse of Soviet-style Communism, which promoted spatial egalitarianism in development policies. Spatial equilibrium (neoclassical) and spatial concentration (cumulative causation) models of regional development in market economies suggest different trends. International investments reported in Business Eastern Europe from 1989 through 1992 are analyzed to test the hypothesis that regional inequalities are increasing as the cumulative causation school suggested they would. Analysis of date, location, type of transaction, and sector variables reveals Sofia's development as a service center and sectoral changes that may have regional implications if the pace of foreign investment quickens. The evidence fails, however, to refute the neoclassical spatial equilibrium model and also fails to dispel the possibility that residual influences of Communist policies are discouraging foreign investment and preventing market-driven spatial adjustments.     

“Doing” Critical Geographies with Numbers

Criticisms of quantitative geography have a long history in our discipline. Since the emergence of early Marxist geography, the advent of new theoretical traditions has been accompanied by sustained and sometimes vigorous critiques of spatial analysis. In this introductory article to the second focus section on critical quantitative geographies, we discuss the accuracy of some of the criticisms about the use(s) to which spatial analysis is put and about the philosophical presumptions underpinning quantitative geographies. We argue that spatial analysis and critical geographies should not be considered mutually exclusive of one another—although this does not mean that numbers and critical geographies are entirely comfortable with one another. We suggest that critical geographies cannot dispense with numbers and visualizations based on numerical information. We hope that the articles collected here will inspire geographers to engage with numbers and statistics to challenge inequality and imagine alternative futures.     

Assessing environmental inequalities in the city of Santiago (Chile) with a hierarchical multiscale approach

Environmental inequalities are a common characteristic of urban areas. Environmental inequality is the unequal spatial distribution of environmental risks and goods among social groups. As environmental inequalities are inherently a spatial matter the choice of scale is essential for correctly understanding inequality issues and for designing proper and effective mitigation policies. However, the potential effects of scale of analysis on inequalities results have largely been underestimated in the assessment of environmental inequalities, leading to contradictory results from different studies. In this study we assess the patterns of environmental inequalities and associated scale issues in the city of Santiago (Chile) using a hierarchical multiscale approach. Our approach focuses on the analysis of spatial relationships between three environmental (i.e., surface temperature, air pollution, vegetation cover) and two socio-demographic variables (i.e., household wealth, population density) on multiple grain sizes and extents. We used census data, remote sensing data, and air pollution monitoring stations to generate raster layers at five grain sizes and five nested extents. We tested for inequalities through Pearson correlation analysis resulting in a total of 1530 assessed relationships. Our results show that environmental inequalities are a prevalent phenomenon in the city of Santiago, but the details of these inequalities are highly scale dependent. Changing the grain size and extent of analysis do not only affect the strength of relationships between socio-demographic and environmental variables, but also the spatial distribution of environmental inequalities across the urban landscape. Therefore, due to the scale-dependence of assessment results, researchers and decision-makers should be extremely careful when interpreting their findings and translating them into policy making. If the scale dependency of environmental inequalities is not taken into account, policy interventions may be largely ineffective because the scale at which interventions are designed may not match the scale at which inequalities are generated.     

中国基础医疗卫生资源供给水平的区域差异

基于差异系数、泰尔指数、基尼系数和空间自相关模型,分析1997-2012年中国342个地级单元基础医疗卫生资源供给水平的总体差异与空间格局,结合相关研究文献比较基础医疗卫生资源供给水平空间格局与区域经济空间格局的差异,分析基础医疗卫生资源供给水平区域差异的原因,并提出未来政策应对的方向性建议。研究表明：① 中国基础医疗卫生资源供给水平区域总体差异较大,但近年来呈现波动缩小的趋势;② 中国基础医疗卫生资源供给水平空间关联格局变化较大,主要原因是高值集聚的HH类型和低值集聚的LL类型在空间的分布发生较大变化;③ 区域基础医疗卫生资源供给水平较高地区在中西部地区和东北地区集聚明显,东部地区主要分布在山东半岛与京津地区。相对于区域经济发展差距的扩大,中国基础医疗卫生资源供给水平的差距已经开始缩小,发展水平空间格局也存在显著差别。基础医疗卫生资源供给的区域差异形成的主要原因包括医疗卫生体制改革、国家区域政策热点分布的变化、人口的大规模流动、资源供给管理体制改革的滞后以及医疗卫生服务需求的收入弹性刺激等。     

基于义务教育校际分异的学校类型及其空间分布模式——以大连市初中为例

利用2015年大连市初中学校多维数据,在分析社会群体间分异状况及其空间表现的基础上,概括了学校的基本类型及其空间分布特征,总结了义务教育校际分异的空间模式。在市域范围内存在4类学校,即成绩较好的城市综合社会群体子女学校;成绩一般的产业工人及一般技术人员子女学校;成绩优异的教师、政府和企事业单位管理者及专业技术人员子女学校;成绩落后但生均教育资源充沛的农村地区学校。4类学校在市域范围内分异明显,形成了从内向外的5个教育圈,即城市中心教育圈、城市郊区教育圈、城市新区教育圈、外围城镇教育圈和外围乡村教育圈。教育资源在教育圈之间呈高低相间分布的特点,教学成绩和学生家庭社会经济地位呈现出从中心向外围逐步降低的特征。     

基于不同尺度的中国区域经济差异

采用变异系数、泰尔指数、空间自相关和尺度方差等统计方法从地带、省级、地级和县级4 个尺度对1998-2009 年中国区域经济差异进行测度和空间格局比较分析。① 差异测度研究表明, 自1998 年以来, 中国区域经济差异在4 个尺度上均表现出扩大的趋势;省级、地级和县级单元人均GDP具有显著的空间自相关性, 其中地级和县级人均GDP的空间自相关程度呈扩大趋势。② 尺度方差及其分解研究表明, 尺度方差及其构成大小依次排列均为县级、地级、省级、地带, 即尺度越小, 尺度方差越大, 对区域经济差异的贡献份额也越大。③ 空间格局研究表明, 不同尺度区域经济空间关联格局总体相对稳定, HH类型集聚区大多分布于东部沿海地区, LL类型在中西部地区的大规模集聚是不同尺度区域经济空间自相关性的主要原因;各尺度显著空间关联类型对总体空间自相关和区域经济差异的影响各不相同。     

义务教育资源资本化相关研究进展与述评

优质公立义务教育资源对国内城市住房价格具有强烈的资本化效应,引发了相对显著的居住群分现象,已成为公共服务领域的热点问题。既有综述类研究缺乏对教育资源资本化的系统性探讨。论文在对教育资源资本化概念与形成机制进行解析的基础上,从教育资源对住房价格的影响、教育资源资本化计量、教育群分与应对策略3个视角进行述评。首先,分别从学校教育质量的测度及其对住房价格的影响、教育资源可达性的测度及对住房价格的影响2个方面,进行“教育资源对住房价格的影响”相关研究综述。其次,通过对测度教育资源资本化的4类典型方法(特征价格法、边界固定法、工具变量法、双重差分法)、部分典型空间经济计量模型与地理加权回归模型及相关应用进行评述,来梳理“教育资源资本化计量”相关文献。最后,围绕择校或学区政策可能引发的教育群分现象、缓解过度教育群分问题的政策研究,概述“教育群分与应对策略”的研究进展。入学政策效应追踪与评估、缓解教育群分现象的系统研究框架构建、覆盖各学段的教育资源资本化测度、针对各学段更加有效的学校可达性测度方法设计、国内租购同权政策下教育资源资本化的动态变化等,或可成为进一步探讨的方向。     

流动视角下跨国教育空间的构建：国际学校案例

流动视角下对多元教育空间的理解需要反思教育与不同地理空间和过程间的相互塑造,以及教育流动过程的关系化本质。以广州某典型国际学校为例,通过参与式观察和半结构化访谈等质性研究方法,分析了跨国教育空间构建过程中全球与本土、流动与驻留（stillness）间的张力。研究表明：知识、人、空间等要素以相互依托和嵌套的方式进行跨国流动,将国际学校打造为全方位、多层次的跨国“教育飞地”;同时,流动的过程并不意味着是对驻留的否定,两者同时塑造着学校空间。一定程度本土要素的加入并没有动摇学校作为国际教育机构的根基。总体来看,教育资源的整体性跨境流动在物理空间、社会服务和阶层意义上形成了与本土间的隔离。构建于本土的跨国教育未能实现真正的跨文化互动和联系,反而进一步强化了文化的差异和边界的形成。研究对教育地理学的丰富和国际化背景下城市特殊空间的研究具有积极推动意义。     

The spatial focus of U.S. interstate migration flows

"Despite the widespread interest in the changing geographies of national migration regimes, it is somewhat remarkable that no widely accepted measure of the spatial concentration or focus exhibited by such geographies has emerged. We examine four of the most popular indices of inequality in this paper and contrast their performance as measures of spatial focus. Adopting the coefficient of variation as our preferred alternative, we go on to examine the spatial focus of aggregate interstate migration steams in the U.S. over time. Then we consider disaggregations of the migration streams by age, race and nativity, and examine the role of states as national redistributors of these same subpopulations."     

南京义务教育资源的社会-空间可达性差异及效应研究

教育公平是社会公平的重要基础,也是多学科交叉的研究热点。城市地理学者惯用空间可达性方法评价城市内部教育资源配置的均衡性与公平性,基于此,结合学区制度下义务教育资源供给方式的特殊性,提出教育资源社会-空间可达性理念,分别以地理可达性、机会可得性和经济可能性衡量教育服务的获取难度及其空间差异。以公办小学和初中学区为空间单元,通过比较2008年和2018年南京主城区教育资源社会-空间可达性发现：地理可达性内城优于外围的空间差异正在缩小,而机会可得性和经济可能性的社会空间差异明显扩大,优质教育资源的获取难度显著增加。历史惯性、城市扩张、单位制度和学区制度等均是导致教育资源在空间上和群体间配置差异的重要原因,特别是学区制和市场化配置原则下,经济资本逐渐成为社会群体争夺优质教育资源、实现代际再生产的核心要素,终而形成教育资源、社会阶层和居住空间的互动循环与锁定机制。南京案例在中国大城市中具有代表性,由教育驱动的城市社会空间重构值得持续关注和积极规导,而不断缩小校际教育质量差异则是推进城市内部教育机会和教育质量公平的根本途径。     

Patterns of Racial Diversity and Segregation in the United States: 1990–2010

The growing ethnic and racial diversity of the United States is evident at all spatial scales. One of the striking features of this new mixture of peoples, however, is that this new diversity often occurs in tandem with racial concentration. This article surveys these new geographies from four points of view: the nation as a whole, states, large metropolitan areas, and neighborhoods. The analysis at each scale relies on a new taxonomy of racial composition that simultaneously appraises both diversity and the lack thereof (Holloway, Wright, and Ellis 2012). Urban analysis often posits neighborhood racial segregation and diversity as either endpoints on a continuum of racial dominance or mirror images of one another. We disturb that perspective and stress that segregation and diversity must be jointly understood—they are necessarily related, although not as inevitable binary opposites. Using census data from 1990, 2000, and 2010, the research points to how patterns of racial diversity and dominance interact across varying spatial scales. This investigation helps answer some basic questions about the changing geographies of racialized groups, setting the stage for the following articles that explore the relationship between geography and the participation of underrepresented groups in higher education.     

Quantitative Revolution 2: The Critical (Re)Turn

Although many have questioned the adequacy of quantitative methods for addressing issues of concern in critical geographies, such as social justice and inequality, many have argued that quantification can potentially make rich contributions to understanding and addressing these issues. In light of the recent attempts to reassert the critical potential and positive role of quantitative geography, we suggest in this introductory article for the Focus Section that the antagonism between critical and quantitative geographies is not beneficial to the discipline. We highlight some promising developments in modern quantitative geography and reflect on the ways in which the critical–quantitative binary can be at least partially eclipsed. We emphasize that knowledge in quantitative methods is essential for deciphering and challenging regressive political agendas, now often supported by numbers and quantitative analysis. Quantitative geography, when integrated with a critical sensibility and used appropriately, can be a powerful tool for fostering progressive social and political change.     

国际贸易地理研究进展

全球化时代的技术进步和贸易自由化似乎逐渐将世界经济连为一体,但研究发现国际贸易仍然显著地受到地理因素影响。与此同时,经济地理学对国际贸易地理的理论建构存在欠缺,其对国际贸易研究的贡献目前集中于对国际贸易地理格局和贸易网络异质性的描述分析上。在此背景下,论文从生产、流通和消费3个方面归纳国际贸易研究对地理因素作用的理论建构和实证研究：① 生产上的地理差异经由机会成本差异促进贸易;② 流通上的地理差异经由贸易成本而抑制贸易;③ 消费上的地理差异经由市场需求地空间差异而影响贸易。通过总结贸易与制度变迁、贸易与集聚、贸易与不平等、贸易与创新、贸易与污染间的关系相关研究,论文认为当前国际贸易研究存在如下局限：① 并未深入讨论地理变量的内生性,即贸易可能反过来塑造地理差异而非仅由地理变量决定;② 相对缺乏多尺度、跨尺度视角,即贸易理论预测的宏观尺度贸易利得在中观、微观主体上并非均等分配,表现出显著的空间差异;③ 部分研究对产品异质性缺乏探讨,无法全面刻画贸易的差异化地理效应。据此,经济地理学未来对国际贸易研究的贡献可能在于运用多尺度、跨尺度联系的视角深入阐释贸易与地理的多维度异质性和复杂互动。     

福建省区域经济差异及其空间格局演化

以人均GDP作为测度区域经济差异的变量指标,通过计算其变异系数、泰尔指数以及泰尔指数的组内组间分解对福建省20世纪90年代以来经济发展的总体差异、沿海内陆差异以及地市间差异进行动态时间序列的分析,发现总体差异和地市间差异呈现缩小而沿海内陆差异呈现扩大的趋势;并通过县市人均GDP数据与图形数据相结合,分析了1990-2006年间福建省区域经济差异的空间格局演化,提出其经济发展空间结构已经形成"核心-边缘"的嵌套结构,即形成由5个亚"核心-边缘"结构组成的大"核心-边缘"结构的格局.     

基于二阶段嵌套锡尔系数分解方法的中国区域经济差异研究

用锡尔系数对1978年以来中国区域经济差异水平进行定量测度。在此基础上,基于三大地带——省(直辖市、自治区)、地区(市、区、自治州)三级结构的地域行政单元,运用二阶段嵌套锡尔系数分解方法对中国区域经济差异进行定量测度,将中国地区差异分解为东、中、西三大地带间的差异和三大地带内省间的差异以及各省区的省内差异,发现省内差异对于中国整体区域差异的影响较三大地带间差异和三大地带内省间差异显著得多,是构成全国整体区域差异的重要组成部分。     

Spatial analysis of urban decline: The geography of blight

Urban studies literature suggests that anti-blight resources are frequently deployed in arbitrary fashions for short-term political objectives, rather than in concentrated, empirically-driven ways intended to manage complex urban problems. This creates an ambiguous and subjective conceptualization of blight in practice, which often leads to mismatches between actual urban conditions and codified public policy targets. Therefore, this research points to the practical need for an operational definition of blight. It is reasonable to assume that focusing anti-blight efforts in spaces identified using empirical data will increase the efficiency of a city's policy efforts. To that end this paper quantifies blight with an approach that is replicable by virtually any city in the United States. We then examine blight patterns for a selected city using spatial clustering methods that highlight areas where policy intervention might be warranted. The findings demonstrate how spatial analysis combined with contextual urban geographic information can assist local policymakers in identifying and understanding the geographies of blight in their municipalities.     

北京城市儿童教育辅导机构的空间集聚及影响因素

教育资源分布的空间均衡关乎社会公平。现有研究主要关注中小学等正规教育设施,对儿童教育辅导机构关注较少。随着教育培训现象越来越普遍,对城市空间功能和社会公平的影响日渐突出,有必要进一步分析其空间集聚特征及影响因素。本文基于2018年北京儿童教育辅导机构POI数据,综合使用核密度、Moran's I指数等空间分析方法,分析北京城市儿童教育辅导机构的空间集聚特征,并构建格网,采用多元回归方法分析其影响因素。结果显示：北京城市儿童教育辅导机构集聚分布在二环至五环内向北延伸的半环状集聚带上;学科类辅导机构在海淀区更集聚分布,艺体类则集聚分布在朝阳区;不同规模儿童教育辅导机构具有不同的空间集聚特征。北京城市儿童教育辅导机构的空间集聚分布是学区、同业集聚程度、房价、交通便捷程度、人口状况等多种因素综合作用的结果;不同学科、不同规模辅导机构集聚的主导因素有显著差异。结果表明课外教育资源存在向重点学区、高级社区空间集聚的倾向,从而可能加剧教育资源的空间不均衡。     

Distancing Asylum Seekers from the State: Australia's evolving political geography of immigration and border control

Australia's border enforcement strategies and immigration control policies operate in distant geographies, concealed from human rights groups, media and the public. From offshore detention to militarised maritime defence operations, Australia's exclusion of asylum seekers is increasingly dependent upon geographical processes that ensure asylum seekers do not have access to the state's systems of protection. This article explores a critically overlooked geopolitical strategy of mobility regulation that relies on processes simultaneously expanding geographies of control, while contracting spaces of rights. The outcome of these rapidly evolving bordering practices is the exaggeration of the distance separating asylum seekers from the state, suspending them within a space devoid of an operational system of rights, and emphasising a new and restructured maritime legal geography.     

Spatiality of regional inequality

Spatial inequality has drawn renewed scholarly interests and societal concerns. This paper reviews the literature on regional inequality, with a focus on spatiality of regional economic/income inequality, to make a timely contribution for a better understanding of the complexity and dynamics of spatial inequality. We find that existing theories disagree over temporal trends and underlying forces of regional inequality, and spatio-temporal models have been favored by economic geographers. It also shows that the research on regional inequality covers all continents of the world, including both developed and developing countries. The scope of research has also been broadened, expanding to household and environmental inequalities. The paper proposes components of spatiality of regional inequality, including scale, location, physical geography, place, space, spatial network, and spatial-temporal models. The paper also proposes areas for future research.     

The top 1% in U.S. metropolitan areas

Increases in U.S. income inequality are driven primarily by rapidly rising incomes of the top 1%. At the national scale, rising inequality is associated with negative consequences for economic growth and stability, a range of social problems and declining social mobility. To date, there is no or little work on the geography of the top 1% and their impact on the cities they inhabit. Using individual income data from the U.S. Census, the paper offers the first detailed analysis of the spatial distribution of the top 1% in the United States. The paper makes use of the range of socio-demographic variables attached to individual records to illustrate that the large majority of the top 1% lives in large cities and that women and ethnic minorities are largely excluded from membership in the top 1%. The widening gap between incomes at the top and bottom will thus lead to increasing gender and ethnic income inequalities. Exploratory analysis of the impact of the top 1% on the bottom 99% suggests that cities with large shares of the top 1% are characterized by higher levels of skill polarization, higher labour force participation rates and lower unemployment rates for those with little formal education and higher median incomes for the better educated. However, the paper shows that higher incomes are outstripped by higher housing costs indicating that any potential advantage trickling down from the top 1% to the bottom 99% is eroded by higher living costs. Preliminary analysis also suggests that cities with a higher share of the top 1% tend to be more segregated with potential implications for the supply, quality, access to and distribution of public local services.