Kerli Müürisepp (p), Olle Järv, Feliks Sjöblom, Marina Toger, John Östh

Kateryna Tkach

Spatial segregation is increasingly comprehended as a dynamic phenomenon that changes across space and time. The dynamic experiences of segregation are shaped by people’s mobility on one hand, and the changing social diversity in the places that they visit and travel through on the other. A growing body of research shows how segregation levels vary according to the routine rhythms of people’s lives. Within 24 hours, people tend to be more segregated at night when they are exposed to their residential neighbourhood contexts. During the day, people have more opportunities to be surrounded by “different others”, be it at work, during travel, or in leisure time. The places with high daytime social diversity, such as city centres and sub-centres, are proven to be important for mediating differences between social groups and thereby mitigating the segregation they might experience residentially.

However, when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in March 2020, people’s routine spatial behaviour changed markedly. While this has been demonstrated with a vast body of research, we still know little how the changes in people’s daily mobility influenced daytime socio-spatial diversity and segregation in cities and beyond. With this study, we set out to narrow this gap by applying the activity space segregation approach to mobile phone and population register data from Greater Stockholm, Sweden. Our presentation will first demonstrate how daytime social diversity changed in Greater Stockholm neighbourhoods, and how were the changes associated with neighbourhood characteristics, such as settlement structure and social composition. Second, we will show how changes in neighbourhoods’ social context during the day influenced people’s daytime exposure to diversity, and how did it vary between social groups. Finally, our presentation will discuss about 1) the potential long-term influences of COVID-19 on spatial segregation, and 2) the value of mobile phone data for capturing segregation dynamics over space and time, and from the perspectives of both places and people.

Katarzyna Pietrzyk (p), Agnieszka Szczepańska, Aneta Cichulska

Kerli Müürisepp

Developed European countries have carried out a number of revitalization and repair activities in cities, and introduced social programs/projects to minimize social and spatial disproportions. The problematic area was the historic, central areas of small towns with numerous high-class tourist monuments and at the same time costly to be renovated old buildings inhabited by local people, with many social and economic problems. Despite numerous actions, it still seems to outside observers that the level of segregation is high, regardless of the sphere of life considered.

The central, historically shaped spaces of small Polish cities represent a potential area of social and spatial segregation. In order to determine the quality of those public spaces , referring to the quality of life of the local community, survey research was carried out. The research covers five small towns in Poland – formed in medieval times in the north-eastern part of the country. The cities of Pasłęk, Morąg, Orneta, Lidzbark Warmiński and Reszel were included. The research sample included 500 people, the research date was at the beginning of 2023.


Method used in the diagnostic survey was adapted to the specific conditions of small historic towns. The questionnaire contains references to the author's matrix method of valorization of the space of small towns. Comparing the opinions of the local population with valorization of space conducted using matrix method enables comprehensive assessment of the level of segregation of the indicated territories.

Carried out research showed a high level of spatial and social segregation. The low quality of historic space is reflected in a very low quality of life. Results of survey research is consistent with the results of previously carried out valorization of public space. The answers of the respondents allowed for the geolocation of areas requiring immediate repair. This shows that actions carried out so far have been ineffective and concentrated only on tourist areas.

Alessandra Faggian, Alessandra Michelangeli, Kateryna Tkach (p)

Katarzyna Pietrzyk

Spatially uneven development has been conceptualised as the problem of regions ‘left behind’ in the European Union, the United Kingdom, and other countries. Importantly, the challenges faced by left behind places, whose residents struggle to win back their prosperity, are multifaceted and commonly encompass economic, social, demographic, and political issues. A complexity of the ‘left behind’ problem is accompanied by increasing interpersonal and interregional inequality, calling for a better understanding of these intertwined processes.
Despite growing interest in actual regional disparities, little is known about the patterns of subjective dimensions of inequality, especially in light of the dichotomy between advanced, “core”, regions and left behind, “periphery”, ones. Actual inequality, which is typically reflected in a measure of the distribution of assets or resources, is the first important objective dimension. What people’s perceptions of inequality are, i.e. perceived inequality, and what citizens wish it to be, i.e. desired inequality, are two additional, and commonly understudied, subjective aspects. The subjective dimensions of inequality, summarizing people’s reading of the reality and wishes, become crucial in the context of the entrenched actual regional disparities.
In this paper we study three different definitions (and measures) of income inequality and look at their patterns. We pay particular attention to how income inequality is perceived and what it ought to be in left behind places vs. more advanced regions of the EU Member States. As for the classification of regions, we use beyond the GDP approach and consider multiple aspects of regional economic disadvantage to complement the commonly applied GDP-based criterion.
Our findings show a non-trivial relation between three “types” of income inequality. We find that actual income inequality fuels people’s perceptions in left behind regions suggesting that their residents are concerned about interpersonal income differences, and therefore do not get accustomed to higher objective (actual) inequality. An opposite scenario occurs in more developed regions where the high level of actual income inequality is reflected in an underestimated perception of it. Consequently, the “paradox of inequality” might be more complex than previously thought since it is observed in European “core” territories, but not in its “periphery” ones. Moreover, the residents of “places that do not matter” wish actual inequality to decrease, unlike those in more developed regions.