空间错位理论是西方城市地理和城市规划研究的重要理论基础之一,自上世纪60年代提出以来引发了大量关注弱势群体居住和就业空间机会的实证研究。近年来中国城市快速空间重构背景下的职住分离现象也引起学者关注。本文首先回顾了空间错位假设的提出背景、基本假设和主要实证研究结论,重点评述了近年来美国空间错位实证研究的方法论进展及主要挑战,在此基础上探讨了空间错位理论对转型期中国城市空间重构研究的借鉴意义。

The spatial mismatch hypothesis has been an important theoretical base in western study of urban geography and urban planning. Since its proposal in the 1960s, it has stimulated a great volume of empirical studies on measuring and demonstrating the mismatch of job and housing opportunities in western cities. Similar phenomena of urban spatial restructuring and home-work separation in Chinese cities have also attracted increasing attention from scholars. This article presents a critical review of the spatial mismatch study in western countries, starting with an overview of its basic hypothesis and empirical research. We argue that John Kain proposed the spatial mismatch hypothesis in 1969 to highlight adverse impacts of urban spatial restructuring in the 1950s and 1960s in urban labor market. Specifically, the hypothesis states that employment decentralization and housing segregation have led to a mismatch among appropriate jobs available in inner-city neighborhoods where most black residents lived, hence resulting in higher unemployment, lower wages, and longer commuting of inner-city black residents. While many empirical researches focus on racial segregation and inequality in labor and housing markets, recent studies suggest a broader view of spatial inequality experienced by disadvantaged people such as women and low-income people. Then the paper discusses key methodological progress and challenges in spatial mismatch research. We argue that, spatial mismatch highlights the requirement for urban geographers to pay attention to the extent of spatial inequality during the large-scale institutional and spatial restructuring in cities, as well as its adverse impacts on job and housing experience of disadvantaged people such as low-income households.