| Abstract: |
While considerable research exists on school availability, education deserts, and school choice, geography of opportunity emerges as a theoretical framework to support new solutions towards equality. Intersections between Freirean theory and discourse analysis surface in existing evidence-base, as availability emerges as perpetually mediated by daily travel time, risk, and cost imposed upon marginalised families. Transportation-related solutions are often more feasible compared to providing direct housing and relocation, though neoliberal market structures continue to dictate car-dependent built environments and urban sprawl to reinforce transportation disadvantage. Research suggests that minimising transportation barriers effectively increases opportunities for individuals stigmatised by race, gender, indigenous experience, disability, socioeconomic status, or other marginalizations. Additionally, developing countries have long mobilised mixed-use vertical developments to minimise land-use while providing opportunities to sizable populations – with developed countries continually documenting environmental-sustainability benefits of these solutions. Expanding geography of opportunity for marginalised families, nonetheless, is rejected under the name of gentrification, suggesting that neoliberal competition for finite opportunities result in segregated, confined, and concentrated areas where marginalised families face demobilisation. In midst of multiple environmental justice and geospatial theories, this paper reviews geography of opportunity scholarship to conceptualise a 20-item research framework, with the aim of supportinging future interdisciplinary scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
