Alexandra Sandu (p)

Judit Timár

In the face of growing concerns about the impact of COVID-19 on children around the world, the impact on their well-being is frequently called into discussion. As such this study reports on the findings of the Children's Worlds survey, an international survey in which children are asked about their views on their lives. The study examines the differences in children’s wellbeing across the European countries before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a particular emphasis on Wales. Using geostatistical methods, our research seeks to investigate variations in children’s wellbeing by linking them to socioeconomic indicators and COVID-19-related variables. The main aim is to see if and how the pandemic influenced the children’s wellbeing by age and geography, and if it sustained already existing socio-spatial inequalities. The findings suggest a decline in children's overall wellbeing, with Wales, for example, recording a notable decrease in aspects linked to school, followed by aspects related to family. There were also important differences observed between younger (10 years old) and older children (12 years old), with the latter being less content with their life during the pandemic.

Signe Jauhiainen (p), Markus Kainu

Alexandra Sandu

Cities aim to prevent income inequality between residents across neighbourhoods since segregation by income is seen unfavourable. Income gap between neighbourhoods has two possible sources. First, the selective migration allocating poor people to low income neighbourhoods and rich people to high income neighbourhoods. Second, the growth rate of residents’ income differs between neighbourhoods. In addition, income gap between neighbourhoods is also related to segregation by employment and health. Aim of this study is to provide new knowledge on segregation between neighbourhoods.

This study focuses on social assistance recipients in 14 cities in Finland. Social assistance is a last resort social security benefit that guarantees minimum income level for low income households. In addition, it covers reasonable housing costs in full. Social assistance recipients are mainly long-term unemployed or young people who are not entitled to unemployment benefits.

We analyse the spatial concentration of social assistance recipients. We have divided neighbourhoods into four categories: 1) city centre, 2) blocks of flats dominated area, 3) small-house area and 4) sparsely populated area. We describe where low income households are located and we examine moves between these areas. We also analyse how housing costs are related to mobility. The micro-level data from the registers of the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela) contain detailed information on income and housing of social assistance recipients in 2017-2020.

Judit Timár (p), Katalin Kovács

Signe Jauhiainen

Uneven geographical development is considered by critical scholars as a form of spatial injustice. The study of the relation between them creates a connection between structures and the agents of urban development, their experience of space (1). This paper aims to understand whether and how the concept of spatial justice is mobilised in urban development practice in European cities as places of uneven development.
The authors analysed case studies on urban development projects implemented in six European cities (Stockholm, London, Rotterdam, Barcelona, Cluj-Napoca, Pécs) as part of the RELOCAL project by means of a Critical Discourse Analysis (2). The multilayered knowledge embodied in these case studies (as academic discourses) and reconstructed in this analysis is derived from what local stakeholders think of their own development projects, from the interpretation of their perception of uneven urban development.
The research has shown that the language of spatial justice as a way of thinking is only found in traces, at best, in the urban development policy discourses in the cities studied. Instead, it is most frequently ‘translated’ into other narratives. The authors could also reveal that incorporating spatial justice as a hollow term into urban (regional, national or EU) development discourses may also be able to strengthen existing power relations and contribute to the production of spatial inequalities. Injustice is reproduced when the concept of spatial justice is taken out of the context of the reproduction of capitalism, when space is ʻrestricted’ to place in development projects, and when social and spatial injustice and procedural and distributive injustice are separated even though the intention is to mitigate the segregation of exploited and oppressed social groups.

Notes:
(1) This approach is based on the first results of the ’Marginalised Space Experience in the Context of Uneven Geographical Development’ research project (No. 138713), which has been implemented with the support provided by the Ministry of Innovation and Technology of Hungary from the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund, financed under the K_21 funding scheme.
(2) This work was supported by European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 727097, project RELOCAL (Resituating the local in cohesion and territorial development), 2016 – 2021.