Inequalities and the City

As urban populations continue to expand, so too do the challenges and risks confronting their inhabitants. Issues emerging at both local and global scales present enduring tests to the sustainability of urban coexistence. Pollution, housing shortages, social segregation, and imbalances of political power are but a few notable examples. Such issues have profound implications for residents’ well-being and contribute to deepening inequalities both between cities and within them. While the specific character of these challenges varies – shaped by each city’s context—phenomena such as climate change, armed conflict, and socio-economic globalization have introduced rapidly evolving obstacles that bind cities together in a complex web of shared predicaments. Some of these issues are deeply rooted in historical processes, while others are distinctly novel, posing fresh theoretical and methodological challenges for the study of inequalities in the city.