And Yet Spatial Disparity Is a Problem of Capitalism: Leftist Approaches in a Post-Fordist World

Abstract

As presented above, the issue of spatial disparity was put at the forefront of mainstream social studies in capitalist countries during the Cold War. In related investigations the United States was at the leading edge of theoretical innovation without a doubt. Due to the manifold changes in the overall political, economic, and social context, however, the topic gradually lost its exclusive position in research agendas from the 1970s onwards. After the neoliberal turn, in the eyes of many, spatial inequality is no longer a “problem” to be “handled”. Meanwhile, the European Union witnessed a different tendency: the attention given to spatial inequalities did not decrease but considerably increased here because of the remarkable economic disparities possibly posing a threat to political stability in the integration. Still, related research in Europe also remained within the theoretical framework offered by state-of-the-art theories of US origin, which mostly did nothing but integrate already accessible concepts to a neoclassical mindset and “language”. Thus, even the most cited and most “visible” researches in Europe dominantly did not go beyond description and left untouched the factors leading to either convergence or divergence.