Spatial inequality and diversity as an emerging research area

摘要

This paper addresses spatial inequality as an emerging specialty area in sociology, which centred on the rural experience. A focus is given to the development of sociological interest in spatial inequality, providing an overview of factors that havecontributed to a spatial trend in the study of stratification. The paper then discusses implications for rural sociology. It describes how rural sociologists contribute to research on spatial inequality and distinguishes the approach of rural sociologyfrom those of other subfields and disciplines. Some examples of research in this area are highlighted by drawing from papers in this current issue.