Author: Malin Roiha, University of Barcelona
The research conducted in the EXIT project will examine different aspects of territorial inequality, from an interdisciplinary perspective and based on a range of methodologies across eight countries. To ensure comparability and coherence of the research across different methods and contexts, the EXIT researchers have identified key interrelated axes that will structure the analysis of territorial inequalities throughout the project.
These axes will help us address a wide range of life areas where territorial inequalities may come into play and affect the lives of the residents of areas that may be defined as suffering from territorial inequality. They allow us to structure the data-gathering and data-analysis processes across the project tasks and enable the comparison of all national contexts in a transversal way. We refer to these axes of analysis as “Guiding Themes”. Following a literature review, the EXIT Guiding Themes have been defined as: Social services and Health; Education; Employment and professional life; Community and social life; Housing, environment and regeneration; Mobility and immobility; Digital Inclusiveness.
These axes will help us grasp the extent of spatial inequalities within the areas selected as case studies, and at the same time facilitate comparability and coherence across the different areas and research tasks. Whilst these seven dimensions are interrelated, integrated and overlapping in everyday life, we need to fragment them into units of analysis for the purpose of structuring the research. Addressing how different axes of inequalities intersect in the perceptions and experiences of ‘left-behindness’ is crucial for understanding the gap between the development of policies to redress territorial inequalities and their impact on the ground. While EXIT proposes a critical approach that aims at challenging common assumptions about the homogeneity of places that are often characterised as ‘left-behind’, we also need to remain aware of the similarities and shared dimensions of inequality of these areas.
In addition to these dimensions, the research will consider transversal elements to capture the structural preconditions that underlie the production of places and territories as ‘left-behind’. On the one hand, we must take into account changing socioeconomic conditions, such as desagrarization of rural areas, or post-industrialisation, which are at the heart of ‘left-behindness’ as a produced condition of places. On the other hand, we need to apply an intersectional perspective that examines gender, racialisation, origin, age, place, class, health, and so on, as interrelated factors or structures that contribute to creating situations of inequality. This perspective facilitates an analysis of how territorial inequalities across different dimensions such as mobility (e.g. availability of public transport) affect residents of the areas in different ways due to intersecting factors such as gender and origin, and how these intersections in a specific place may contribute to further marginalisation.
