Introduction: the interplay among inequalities, wellbeing and space

Inequalities have been a long-standing issue and a terrain of theoretical and empirical discussions and debates in many disciplines (e.g. economics, social sciences, political sciences, geography and even philosophy), each proposing alternative perspectives, notions and interpretations. Yet, inequalities are still too often conceptualised with predefined and bounded spatial imaginaries, which often hinder their interrelated, interdependent and multiscalar nature (Brenner and Schmid, 2015; Lang et al., 2015). What is more and more clear, however, is that a multiscalar, multidimensional, multitemporal and multidisciplinary perspective is especially relevant. to understand the genesis and impacts of the newly emerging spatial inequalities on the wellbeing of individual and places. This edited book tackles this challenge by enabling the convergence into a single volume of different disciplinary perspectives, ranging from regional economics to urban studies, from economic and urban geography to planning. The book moves from the idea that this multidisciplinary perspective, at first sight, may look quite consolidated and agreed among scholars: several recent books in fact try to contribute to developing a thoroughly integrated approach to define, explore and even deal with the challenges related to spatial inequalities and wellbeing. Nevertheless, our premise is the perception that there is an urgent need, now more than ever, of opening and collecting a critical discussion between seminal contributions that too often remain embedded and siloed in their study fields (McCall, 2017; Segal, 2022).