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    Published: 2016-06-30
    Vol. 15 No. 2 (2016)

    Spatial aspects of social inequality: spatial justice and differentiation of community wellbeing – evaluation of the impact of development resources

    Włodzimierz Okrasa

    Abstract

    The problem formulated briefly in the title of this paper reflects the importance of analyzing jointly the two dimensions, inequality and space – which are traditionally discussed in the sociological literature indepen-dently from each other – in exploration of the differentiations in the degree of development of the territorial units at the lowest level of administrative-statistical granulation, i.e. gminas (which serve here as operatio-nal approximation of ‘local community’). Spatial inequalities, their description and analysis of the impact of ‘place’ and the geographical relationship of proximity/distance became a subject of growing interest in research for substantive and methodological reasons, particularly evident since the 90s of the last century. Review of analysis explaining spatial inequalities in various countries leads to a clear indication on the quality of the environment of residence, infrastructure and geographical location (including the distance from the centers of metropolitan transportation) as a key differentiating factor between them, which some authors also called ‘second nature of geography’. Therefore, the Europen Union territorial cohesion policy’s program, with its chief postulate of convergence – aimed at raising the level of the less developed territorial units, so called β-convergence, and of equalization of levels through the reduction of inequalities between territorial units, so-called σ-convergence – have become a particularly important object of evaluation-oriented policy analysis. The question of whether a defined (even implicitly) strategy constituted a basis for the geographical allocation of development funds making up the total subsidies received by the community (including the Structural Funds and Social Funds) was the starting point presented in this paper analyzes of the spatial inequalities. At the outset, a specific vision of the relationship between the growth/development and inequ-alities was adopted here, generally in line with the expectations suggested by the discussed in the literature Williamson’s hypothesis, espousing pattern similar to that being specified earlier for the whole economy under the name of so-called Kuznets’ inverted U curve, stating that inequality remain in such relation with increasing levels of development at the local (gmina) level as well. Empirical verification of the implications of this hypothesis in the local context focusing on the postulate of convergence leads in the conclusion from the report analysis (using econometric methods) to formulation of the paradox of regressive convergence: Achieving σ-convergence, i.e., the reduction of the inequalities among municipalities at the lower levels of local development takes place clearly, but this is done through ‘matching down’. So, it occurs at the expense of a failure from the point of view of β-convergence, postulating converge lower positioned units/munici-palities towards better-off. Identification of this paradox was only possible thanks to contextualization of the problem through conducting analyzes at the municipal/gmina level (the lowest level of administrative division of the country). However, for the case of Poland, the conclusion accords with studies of the World Bank (2009) indicating that during the first phase of the distribution of development funds from the EU on average more funds were placed in the sub-regions (groups of counties) being already more developed (they were also better prepared for their absorption).

    Keywords:

    spatial inequalities, Williamson’s hypothesis, spatial justice, decomposition of inequality, paradox of convergence

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    Okrasa, W. (2016). Spatial aspects of social inequality: spatial justice and differentiation of community wellbeing – evaluation of the impact of development resources. Academic Journal of Sociology, 15(2). Retrieved from https://czasopisma.uksw.edu.pl/index.php/ucs/article/view/2892

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