Contemporary Social and Economic Issues

Contemporary social and economic issues research examines how cities grow and fragment, how development policies succeed or fail, and how globalization reshapes inequality, governance, and cultural life across different societies. Scholars draw on sociology, political economy, and urban studies to understand why some populations are pushed to the margins of prosperity and democratic participation while others benefit from the same structural forces. Active debates center on whether distinctly European models of social welfare and regulation can hold together under fiscal pressure and migration-driven demographic change, and on how cultural capitalism—the monetization of identity, creativity, and meaning—alters the conditions under which communities organize and governments make claims about shared welfare. The field ultimately asks whether the institutions built to manage industrial modernity can be adapted to address risks, exclusions, and political fractures that those institutions were never designed to handle.

Works

5,147

Total citations

1,335

Keywords

UrbanismDevelopment PolicySociological AnalysisGlobalizationSocial ExclusionEuropean Model