Inequality and Urban Space In Turbulent Times: Polarization, Segregation, Resistance and Spatial Justice

In recent years, metropolitan areas worldwide have faced turbulent crises, including pandemics, inflation, climate change, and neoliberal urban development. These crises have amplified existing inequalities and accelerated spatial fragmentation, leading to socio-spatial polarization, affluent enclaves, and the displacement of low-income populations to peripheries.

To comprehend these shifts, bridging urban sociology with social stratification and class theories is vital for examining spatial transformation alongside long-term structural changes. For instance, even in East Asian megacities like Tokyo—once characterized by relatively small economic disparities—three decades of widening inequality have profoundly reshaped the socio-spatial structure, manifesting in underclasses, urban polarization, and health disparities.

Building upon these cumulative structural changes, this session critically examines how socio-economic inequalities are projected onto and reinforced within contemporary urban spaces. We welcome papers addressing diverse topics, including gentrification, socio-spatial polarization, food deserts, mobility and access disparities, and the unequal distribution of infrastructure. Furthermore, the session explores how grassroots communities and social movements resist these spatial inequalities to reconstruct inclusive urban spaces and achieve spatial justice.

We welcome various methodological and theoretical approaches, including macro-analyses using social atlases, multi-level mixed methods, and grounded case studies. We especially encourage empirical and comparative studies focusing on East Asian metropolises, the Global South, and other regions undergoing rapid structural transformation in these turbulent times.