Tackling Territorial Inequality with a Social-Spatial Relational Approach

Territorial space inherently co-constitutes and reproduces social inequalities as principles of b/ordering characterize its nature. Territorial borders discriminate between an internal and an external sphere. While the inner sphere homogenizes political, cultural, legal and moral rights, needs, and attitudes, the outer sphere simultaneously excludes anyone or anything that does not belong to this regime. This set of facts can be observed from the local level of housing policy and planning to the national level of dealing with climate change effects. Accordingly, territorial space contributes to perpetuating all dimensions of social hierarchies as have been delineated by Lessenich (2019). However, principles of b/ordering are under pressure since political, cultural and economic borders do not conflate anymore due to the globalization of the neoliberal paradigm (Beck & Poferl 2010). Mechanisms and arrangements that help reduce territorial inequalities can be explored by applying theories of topology, which refer to nodes and relations between them. They can be distinguished systems theoretically for analytical reasons. By taking a social systems perspective, the paper relies on Rosanvallon’s (2013) idea of relational equity with its components of ‘singularity’ (the individual in relation to others), ‘reciprocity’ (co-producing and co-consuming community goods and services), and ‘communality’ (overcoming social-spatial segregation). From a spatial systems perspective, the paper addresses places as primary nodes in a network that varies in scale and scope. The relational approach does not neglect territorial spaces, which remain relevant for the sake of legal belongingness and political representation. However, it attempts to supplement it by a relational thinking that surmounts containerized spatial imaginations of inclusion and exclusion. With this approach, a step towards reducing constraints of competition between territorial regions can be achieved because it is less feasible to compare them as homogenous units. Instead, territorial inequalities explored with a territorial-relational conceptualization of space primarily focuses on the local circumstances of inequity or injustice with respect to, among other things, social infrastructure, labor or housing markets. Two empirical examples from northern Sweden will illustrate the relational approach. One example refers to the local level of a village whose residents established social associations to retain the school, a hotel and a store offering farming devices and local cultural products. Moreover, the village is part of a global crowd-funding network and hosted a conference of this institution. These activities strengthened the local community in a period of demographic and economic decline. The other example considers the regional perspective of a hospital, which established a network of Virtual Health Rooms (VHR) in tiny villages as one component of its eHealth engagement to reduce health care inequalities. The distribution of the VHR is not restricted to the municipality’s territory where the hospital is located. New challenges of inequality emerge with the relational strategy, nevertheless. References: Beck U. & Poferl A. (2010): Große Armut, großer Reichtum. Suhrkamp. Lessenich S. (2019): Grenzen der Demokratie. Reclam. Rosanvallon (2013): The Society of Equals. Harvard University Press.