Mr Emil - Technion – Israel Institute of Technology

Personal Information

Country: Israel

City: Haifa

Nationality: Israeli and Greek

Research Interests

General Research Interests:

My interest issues are urban suburbanization and sprawl consequences. This interest developed from my M.A. thesis which dealt with the effects of the rail train on suburbanization processes. The scientific literature regarding the diverse allegations against sprawl negatives externalities brought me to concentrate in its social aspects and in the meaning of justice in space. I am particular interested in how can we measure this abstract idea into an empirical spatial test. This interest lead me to Pierre Bourdieu theory of capitals, and then to the literature of regional science which dealt with capitals forms as development engines.

PhD/Postdoctoral Research Title: Social Justice and Equal Opportunities in an Era of Urban Suburbanization

PhD/Postdoctoral Research Abstract::

Questions of justice and injustice have been raised in recent years when contending with the negative externalities of urban sprawl. One prominent allegation stresses that this phenomenon has negative effects on the distribution of social goods and resources, and hence on the life-chances of individuals and groups in the metropolitan society. Despite the fierce arguments, it seems that there is a lack of empirical evidence to support or refute these allegations. This field of moral inquiry apparently suffers from incomplete knowledge because of the difficulty in translating abstract philosophical notions into concrete data for empirical investigation.
In order to address this lack, a new research framework is proposed, based on the nexus between life chances with regard to capitals resources, and the built environment amenities in the locality. This new research framework is based mainly on the theoretical conceptualization posited by the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. The research is intended to use the class structure of modern capitalist societies based, among others concepts, on the production, accumulation, and transmission of Bourdieu’s three forms of capital: Economic, Cultural, and Social. These three capitals enable individuals or social groups to achieve social good in a variety of fields of life that later translate into capabilities (or opportunities and chances).
The assumption is that local settlements produce a set of life chances that might be a function of the three Bourdieuvian capitals. As such, these forms of capitals influence the patterns in which social goods are distribute in space (i.e., social justice). Impairing the capability to produce and accumulate the Bourdieuvian capitals, as it is suspected that the phenomenon of sprawl does to many urban inhabitants, might be an explicit sign of social injustice in space. Thus, it is hypothesized that metropolitan social justice can be accomplished if capital resources equilibrium between cities and suburbs, mediated through the environmental amenities of each of these spatial configurations is achieved.
In order to convert this epistemological layout into an experiential testing, a three-stage empirical investigation will be held, in the Tel-Aviv metropolitan region. The first stage will measure the urban versus suburban social gaps in Bourdieu's terms and their diverse life chances. The data will be collected through institutional datasets relating to 60 local authorities in the metropolitan area. The second stage will explore, in a regional case study, selected from the metropolis, the variances in heads of household capital resources generation and accumulation. A field survey will be conducted and the data will be collected through a well constructed questionnaire. Interviews will be held with a sample of approximately 1,000 households living in the region. The third stage will address the policy dimension, in which local policy regarding a series of economic, cultural and social findings will be analyzed. It will be based on in depth interviews of senior Local Authority officials and annual Local Authority audit report analyses.

Curriculum Vita: Download