The Political Discourse of Spatial Disparities: Geographical Inequalities Between Science and Propaganda (Contributions to Political Science)

This work aims to provide unique insights into the multidisciplinary research on spatial disparities from an unconventional point of view. It breaks with the conventional narrative that tends to interpret this theoretical tradition as a series of factual contributions to a better understanding of the issue. Instead, related theories are investigated in their political, economic, and social contexts, and spatial disparity research is presented as a political discourse. It also reveals how the propagandistic problematization or de-problematization of geographical inequalities serves the substantiation of political goals, while taking advantage of the legitimate authority of science and the image of scientific objectivity. The book explains how the discourse has functioned from 19 th century social physics over the Cold War period up to Marxist geographies of the current neoliberal age, and in what way and to what extent political considerations prevent related concepts producing ‘objective’ knowledge about the complex phenomenon of spatial inequalities. This work aims to provide unique insights into the multidisciplinary research on spatial disparities from an unconventional point of view. It breaks with the conventional narrative that tends to interpret this theoretical tradition as a series of factual contributions to a better understanding of the issue. Instead, related theories are investigated in their political, economic, and social contexts, and spatial disparity research is presented as a political discourse. The book reveals how the propagandistic problematization or de-problematization of geographical inequalities serves the substantiation of political goals, while taking advantage of the legitimate authority of science and the image of scientific objectivity. It also explains how the discourse has functioned from 19th century social physics over the Cold War period up to Marxist geographies of the current neoliberal age, and in what way and to what extent political considerations prevent related concepts producing 'objective knowledge about the complex phenomenon of spatial inequalities Front Matter....Pages i-xv Introduction....Pages 1-6 The Debate Over Social Disparities and the Disparity Discourse....Pages 7-85 Social Disparities Meet Space and Concepts Surrounding It....Pages 87-91 A Contextual Analysis of the Emergence of Spatial Disparity Research....Pages 93-102 Spatial Disparity Analysis and Anti-Capitalism: The “Classical” Marxist Tradition....Pages 103-121 Non-Marxist Reactions to the Marxist Problematization of Spatial Unevenness....Pages 123-189 Spatial Disparity Research After the Initial Decades of Cold War: End of the “Golden Age”....Pages 191-230 And Yet Spatial Disparity Is a Problem of Capitalism: Leftist Approaches in a Post-Fordist World....Pages 231-330 Political Functioning of the Spatial Disparity Discourse: A Summary....Pages 331-335 Conclusion....Pages 337-339 What to Do with the Discourse on Spatial Disparities? A Normative Outlook....Pages 341-345 Back Matter....Pages 347-381