Call for Papers Advancing Spatial Health Inequalities Research: Innovations in Data, Methods, and Theory

Special Issue Co-Editors

Andreas Höhn, University of Glasgow/University of St. Andrews

Alison Heppenstall, University of Glasgow

Nik Lomax, University of Leeds

Call for Submissions

Persistent spatial inequalities in mortality and health are widely documented for many countries and different welfare state regimes. Many of these inequalities were shown to have widened within the past years, amplified by the Covid-19 pandemic. Owing to a paucity of good quality data, there are many different approaches to conceptualise and measure inequalities in mortality and health. Spatially, health inequalities are the product of many contributing factors. For example, the environment in which people live and the underlying demographic structure often interplay with the broader context of the welfare state in which individuals reside. While sharing this complexity, details of these interrelationships differ across and within countries. At the same time, effective interventions to address health inequalities are reliant on evidence at the most detailed spatial resolution possible.

Despite decades of research and interventions, health inequalities have proven to be persistent, resistant, and adaptive. In an attempt to better understand the properties of this “wicked problem”, contemporary research has increasingly moved towards systems science approaches. Systems science approaches recognise that population health is a context-specific outcome within a complex system of interdependent contributing factors. Alongside this change in paradigm with respect to theoretical approaches, new methods and data sources have become available which enable a more spatially focused view of heath inequalities. This new toolbox includes, for example, Bayesian estimation techniques, microsimulation models, and the development of synthetic population data sets. Similarly, health inequalities research has become increasingly interdisciplinary, drawing directly from the strengths of related qualitative and quantitative disciplines.

This special issue aims to provide a contemporary portrait of key advancements for spatial health inequalities research with respect to data, methods, and theory. We welcome methodological and applied contributions that allow us to highlight the state-of-the-art in geographical research that enables us to better understand health inequalities, and contributing factors, at a granular geographical resolution.

Topics

Submissions can focus on a variety of aspects, including:

• Theoretical approaches to inequalities in mortality and health
• Analyses and evaluations of past and current policies aiming to reduce inequalities in mortality and health
• Comparative studies with a strong cross-country or within-country perspective
• Novel data sources such as digital trace data and synthetic populations
• Novel linkages of individual- and area-level data
• Studies exploring factors contributing to area-level inequalities in mortality and health and their interaction with environmental, social, and political contexts
• Longitudinal studies on changes in area-level inequalities in mortality and health
• Novel methods for obtaining and decomposing metrics of health and mortality inequalities

Please get in touch with the editors if you would like to discuss your submission.

Timeline:

• Publication of Call for Papers: February 1st, 2024
• Deadline for manuscript submission: July 1st, 2024
• Initial peer-review: as papers are received, but broadly covering May 2024 to September 2024
• Revision of manuscripts: September 2024 to November 2024
• Review of revised manuscripts: November 2024 to December 2024
• Final manuscript revision: January 2025 to February 2025
• Publication: March 2025
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Authors of manuscripts are expected to serve as referees to accelerate the review process. Submission will be refereed according to the standard procedures of Geographical Analysis. Information about the journal can be found here.