Abstract

TREUKE, Stephan. The reproduction of socioeconomic inequalities in the neighborhood: examining the spatial dimension of poverty. Rev. colomb. soc. [online]. 2018, vol.41, n.2, pp.169-187. ISSN 0120-159X.  https://doi.org/10.15446/rcs.v41n2.63504.

The article carries out an initial reflection on the approaches to urban poverty and its repercussions on socio-spatial organization in America, European, and Latin American sociology. Numerous parallel proposals stemming from this hypothesis contribute to the construction of the three theoretical narratives, which agree on the following points: the growing socio-spatial polarization linked to the increase of socioeconomic inequalities: the restructuring of the productive system; the retraction or reconfiguration of the social welfare state, accompanied by harsher eligibility criteria that condition access to income transfer programs: and the stigmatization of certain minority or ethnic-racial groups in the job and housing markets. Secondly, the discussion focuses on the question of how the residential segregation process becomes a mechanism that reinforces poverty due to its impact on individuals' wellbeing and socioeconomic performance, on the basis of the territory-effect hypothesis. The juxtaposition of disadvantages in the territory, understood as an intermediate dimension between agency and structure, should take into account the spatial stratification of socioeconomic inequalities for the design of urban policies, among which three orientations stand out. People-based policies provide temporary assistance to certain marginal groups living in poor neighborhoods, through desegregation and residential mobility programs, strict monitoring of antidiscrimination laws in the real estate market, and housing loans that benefit low-income persons.

Place-based policies define the neighborhood as intervention unit by investing in infrastructure and street furniture and in the creation of jobs in response to the local population's demands, in order to broaden opportunity structures and further attract middle class groups. Additionally, by requiring the construction of housing that is accessible to the low-income population in suburban areas, they promote social and ethnic-racial heterogeneity in the neighborhood's population composition. The indirect approach calls for stronger regulatory State intervention in the job and housing markets, adapted to the transformations of the socio-productive regime of Post-Fordism.

Keywords : residential segregation; socioeconomic inequalities; structures of opportunities; territory-effect; urban policies; urban poverty.

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