Researching socio-spatial inclusiveness of urban densification strategies - Using spatial capital as a theoretical conceptualisation

Researching socio-spatial inclusiveness of urban densification strategies – using spatial capital as a theoretical conceptualisation To combat environmental problems and to regulate urban sprawl, low carbon policies are focusing on compact cities, where residents live in higher densities to counter automobile dependency. One of these policies is the densification around public transport hubs and multifunctional urban centres, to promote sustainable mobility practices (i.e. walking, cycling and public transport ridership). Together with an increasing trend of people moving towards (central parts of) the city, this enhances the attractiveness of urban areas and increases housing prices especially in the centrally located and highly accessible parts of city regions, potentially leading to processes of gentrification. Such spaces have become a scarce ‘good’. An increasingly relevant question is whether these developments are socially inclusive, and what kind of socio-spatial consequences this has for the diversity of socio-economic groups living in urban spaces. In this paper I explore how the concept of spatial capital (Rérat 2018; 2011), which refers to the mastery or command of spatial aspects of life (inspired by Pierre Bourdieu’s theories on capital), may be applied to develop a research design and to study socio-spatial accessibility and inequality in city regions, resulting from compact city and transit-oriented strategies. How may questions about socio-spatial inequalities and justice be addressed through the concept of spatial capital, and how may this conceptualization be operationalized and applied in empirical research. Rérat, P. (2018). Spatial capital and planetary gentrification: residential location, mobility and social inequalities. Handbook of Gentrification Studies. Edward Elgar Publishing. Rérat, P. & Lees, L. (2011). Spatial capital, gentrification and mobility: evidence from Swiss core cities. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 36(1), 126–142.