Spatial justice and the geography of inequality in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area

Miguel Viegas; Jan Wolf

doi:10.18778/1231-1952.33.2.03

Authors

Miguel Viegas University of Aveiro, Department of Economics, Management, Industrial Engineering and Tourism, Research Unit on Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policies, Campus Universitário de Santiago https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1390-4992
Jan Wolf University of Aveiro, Department of Social, Political and Territorial Sciences, Research Unit on Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policies, Campus Universitário de Santiago https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8701-7117

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1231-1952.33.2.03

Keywords:

spatial justice, social inequality, territorial disparities, Lisbon Metropolitan Area, spatial econometrics, urban segregation, regional development

Abstract

This paper investigates the geography of social inequality in Portugal through a multi-scalar analysis of territorial disparities and socio-spatial segregation. Focusing on the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, it combines Population and Housing Census data from 2011 and 2021 with measures of concentration, segregation, and spatial autocorrelation, complemented by cartographic and Local Indicators of Spatial Association (LISA) analysis.
The results reveal persistent socio-spatial inequalities alongside profound metropolitan restructuring. While disadvantaged populations have historically been concentrated in peripheral and working-class territories, recent transformations have been characterised by the displacement of low-qualified groups from central neighbourhoods towards the metropolitan periphery, reflecting processes of gentrification, housing-market restructuring, and spatial polarisation.
More broadly, the results suggest that metropolitan inequality is increasingly shaped not simply by residential segregation, but by the uneven territorial distribution of different forms of capital and the progressive displacement of social disadvantage towards peripheral spaces. The article contributes to contemporary debates on spatial justice, territorial cohesion, and the reproduction of inequality in European metropolitan regions.

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