Introduction

Abstract

The analysis of spatial disparities has long constituted one of the most popular issues in human geography, and it has also gained considerable attention from representatives of other social sciences (e.g. economics, political science and sociology). This has at least two reasons. On the one hand, the geographical aspect of social and economic inequalities is an outcome of a great many factors, whose explanation belongs to the domain of various disciplines. Hence, a comprehensive investigation and interpretation of spatial disparities is hardly possible without mobilizing the analytical capacity of different fields of interest. On the other, due to the complexity of the issue, the research of geographical inequalities can provide relevant information for several disciplines, which these can utilize in their research practice even in questions not directly related to the spatial dimension. Despite its multidisciplinary relevance however, spatial disparity research has many aspects that to date have been remarkably neglected, although their investigation would be crucial for a better understanding of the phenomenon.