The study authors, Alfonso Gallego, Francisco Ródenas and Jorge Garcés, analyse how the spatial concentration of social benefits in Torrent implicitly reflects the municipality’s socio-spatial inequality structure, which is greater in the most vulnerable neighbourhoods. And not only that, but the research shows that the number of benefits per inhabitant increases as their spatial grouping pattern increases. The analysis data refer to the year 2017.

Despite being a local research, Cities magazine has echoed the analysis precisely because of its particular focus, since there are very few studies that relate the geolocation of the recipients of social benefits to analyse patterns of socio-spatial inequality in small cities, as explained by Francisco Ródenas, a researcher at Polibienestar.

In addition, another question to ask is whether there are other factors for which Torrent has been chosen to study this phenomenon. The answer is simple: the capital of l’Horta Oest –which has more than 80,000 inhabitants– is one of the municipalities that contains some of the areas with the highest percentage of the population in a situation of severe economic vulnerability in the province. Therefore, there are great differences between the different areas of Torrent in terms of the distribution of wealth and the perception of aid.

There are two adjacent neighbourhoods that receive more social benefits in the municipality: Xenillet-Benisaet and the areas of L’Alter and El Raval, respectively, located in the northern part of the city. Both areas belong to the old town of Torrent and in recent years the urban, socioeconomic and residential fabric has deteriorated. This is why El Xenillet neighbourhood launched the URBAN Initiative, which aimed to address the problems of the area from a multifactorial perspective. On the contrary, the area of El Vedat – contiguous to the modern expansion of the city – is one of the areas that receives the least social benefits.

Thus, the study reveals that there is a dichotomy of the urban social structure of Torrent. Therefore, the research also explains that the group of areas that receive the most benefits – El Xenillet, L’Alter and El Raval – corresponds to some of the most degraded neighbourhoods in the city; while the group that receives the least – El Vedat – corresponds to areas of low population density, with a predominance of single-family homes, something typical of neighbourhoods with high purchasing power.

Although the study focuses on Torrent, its authors have indicated that the methodology used can be fully transferable, “guiding the action of public powers and informing the design of urban intervention policies and the configuration of social protection policies”.

Article: Gallego-Valadés, Alfonso; Ródenas-Rigla, Francisco; Garcés-Ferrer, Jorge (2021). «Socio-spatial stratification and social services in a small-sized city: The case of Torrent (Spain)», Cities, v. 111, 103078.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2020.103078