THE AGE OF EXTREMES - CONCENTRATED AFFLUENCE AND POVERTY IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Urbanization, rising income inequality, and increasing class segregati on have produced a geographic concentration of affluence and poverty t hroughout the world creating a radical change in the geographic basis of human society. As the density of poverty rises in the environment o f the world's poor, so will their exposure to crime, disease, violence , and family disruption. Meanwhile the spatial concentration of afflue nce will enhance the benefits and privileges of the rich. In the twent y-first century the advantages and disadvantages of one's class positi on will be compounded and reinforced through ecological mechanisms mad e possible by the geographic concentration of affluence and poverty, c reating a deeply divided and increasingly violent social world.