ABSTRACT
In a way, research on “inequality” is at the very core of geographical science. In fact, the starting point of almost all research in geography is to highlight the uneven distribution of a given phenomenon across a given territory. Be it climate, rural dwelling types, population density, unemployment rates, or the intensity of financial transactions: the expression of all things varies in space what leads to the accurate observation that conditions in area A are never completely equal to conditions in area B. Since research capacities are limited, and relevance is no less an important criterion of geographical research than spatiality, however, geography is especially interested in those phenomena the spatial variation of which is considered problematic and/or in need of correcting. According to Thieme (1985: 213), such problematic spatial structures are what should be called “regional disparities”, in contrast to “regional inequality” which points to the whole range of regional differences including regional disparities.
