Introduction: Advancing the sociology of spatial inequality

Geauga county, OHIO, reflects a portrait of national affluence, with a median household income of over $52,000 per year and a poverty rate of an even 5 percent. Several hours due south, residents of Meigs County realize a median household income half that of Geauga's population and confront a poverty rate four times as high. These statistics are evidence of the vast differences in material resources and life chances for residents of the two areas, ranging from the likelihood of obtaining a college education to differences in wages for the same degree and from availability of health care to quality of general public services. Geauga County is comprised of wealthy bedroom communities for the Cleveland metropolitan area; Meigs is in the heart of Appalachian Ohio, a region of legendary persistent deprivation. Yet the two counties are part of the same state, subject to the same legal and administrative system. Differences between these two counties and the regions in which they are embedded are discussed in one of the chapters in this volume. These differences reflect the very real significance of geography in shaping opportunity structures and the complex ways that social and spatial organization interact to construct enduring inequalities.