Spatial inequalities and regional development: A framework

The concepts of spatial inequality and regional development have been widely dealt with in regional science and in related base disciplines like (regional) economics, sociology and political science. In spite of this, spatial inequality is an ill-defined term in the literature, as is shown in an economic context by Richardson in Chapter 7. Often it is used as a synonym for inequity. In this chapter inequality is defined as the difference in spatially-defined variables as, e.g., population density and income per capita. This implies that spatial inequality may both refer to a desired and to an undesired difference. For instance, variety in landscape is generally regarded as desirable, whereas large spatial differences in living conditions are mostly unwanted. Spatial inequality associated with ideological commitment, describing an undesired difference, will be defined as spatial inequity.