Analyse the spatial inequalities produced by global networks and how they are measured

What this dot point is asking

SCSA wants you to explain how globalisation produces uneven outcomes, identify the patterns of inequality between and within places, describe how inequality is measured, and evaluate why some places benefit more than others. A strong answer distinguishes inequality at different scales and uses named measures and examples.

What spatial inequality means

Spatial inequality is the unequal distribution of resources, income, services and life chances across geographic areas. Globalisation does not spread benefits evenly. Investment, high-value jobs and infrastructure cluster in well-connected nodes, while poorly connected places are bypassed. The result is winners and losers at every scale.

It is important to analyse inequality at multiple scales:

• Between countries: the gap between high-income and low-income economies.
• Within countries: gaps between regions, such as booming capital cities versus declining rural or rust-belt areas.
• Within cities: wealthy and disadvantaged neighbourhoods side by side.

How global networks create inequality

Several mechanisms concentrate advantage:

• Cumulative causation. Once a place attracts investment, it gains infrastructure, skills and further investment, pulling ahead of others, while peripheries lose people and capital to the core.
• Value capture. As production and value chains show, design and branding capture most profit, so countries that only supply raw materials or assembly earn little.
• Connectivity. Places linked into global networks (major ports, financial centres, tech hubs) thrive; those left off the network stagnate.
• Footloose capital. Mobile investment can leave a place quickly, exposing dependent regions to sudden job losses.

Measuring spatial inequality

WACE expects you to know and interpret the main measures.

• GNI or GDP per capita: average income per person; useful for comparing countries but hides distribution within them.
• Gini coefficient: a single number from 0 (perfect equality) to 1 (one person has everything) that summarises income inequality within a population.
• Human Development Index (HDI): a UN composite of income, life expectancy and education, giving a broader picture of wellbeing than income alone.
• Choropleth and proportional maps: display how a chosen indicator varies across regions, a common stimulus skill in the examination.

Patterns and examples

• Between countries: high-income economies in North America, Western Europe and East Asia hold a large share of global wealth, while many Sub-Saharan African and South Asian economies remain low-income. Globalisation has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty, especially in China and India, while leaving others behind.
• Within countries: in Australia, Perth and the resource regions generate high incomes, while many remote and Indigenous communities experience much lower incomes, health and education outcomes. In China, coastal manufacturing provinces are far richer than the rural interior.
• Within cities: global cities such as London or Sydney contain both high-income financial districts and disadvantaged suburbs, a pattern visible on choropleth maps of income or disadvantage.

Responses to spatial inequality

Governments and international bodies attempt to reduce inequality through regional development policies, infrastructure investment in peripheries, foreign aid, fair-trade schemes, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and progressive taxation and welfare. Effectiveness varies, and a balanced answer evaluates whether such responses actually narrow the gaps.