Conference Program

In recent decades, the transformations of welfare regimes, characterized by the erosion of traditional safety nets and a tendency toward more localized forms of welfare delivery (Andreotti & Mingione 2016), have increased socio-spatial disparities in access to services essential for people well-being. Education represents a critical domain of this transformation, as recent market-oriented reforms have led to the expansion of private schooling and to a greater responsibility assumed by local governance actors for public education provision. Such shifts have contributed to increasing spatial inequalities in educational opportunity. Affluent areas often concentrate attractive public and private schools, whereas disadvantaged neighborhoods have lower-quality public schools that face competitive pressures from private institutions (Owens & Candipan, 2019). While several studies have shown that these spatial disparities in educational opportunity intensify school segregation (Oberti & Savina, 2019) and academic achievement gaps (Claes & Moulin, 2026), surprisingly less attention has been paid to their broader political consequences (Cremaschi et al. 2025; Nyholt, 2023). This study aims to help fill this gap in the literature by examining how spatial inequalities in public schools within increasingly privatized systems affect both conventional and contentious forms of political participation.

Our argument is that the uneven spatial distribution of public and private schools does not only reorganize educational opportunities but may also generate grievances that can transform the relationship between citizens and the State. We anticipate that exposure to (good quality) public school deprivation may undermine individuals’ perceptions of meritocracy and trust in institutions, which can ultimately foster political resentment. Importantly, these dynamics likely vary by social class, given that lower-class people are more dependent on public services. To what extent does spatial inequalities in education opportunity relate to political discontent? Does the relationship between local educational conditions and political discontent vary by social class?

We conduct this research in Chile, one of the most unequal countries in the world where the availability and quality of schools vary considerably across municipalities. We combine data from the Chilean Longitudinal Social Survey (2018-2023) with administrative information on schools. Results from multilevel regression models indicate that local deprivation in public school is associated with distinct political responses. Among lower-income groups, limited and low-quality public provision is linked to low-resource mobilization (e.g., petition, social media), while wealthier individuals respond through high-resource actions such as strikes. At the same time, declining levels of public education provision are associated with support for right-wing parties. We show that the effects are significantly stronger for education than for other key welfare services, like health.

Overall, this article advances the literature on the geography of discontent by showing that beyond economic and cultural marginalization, spatially uneven welfare provision, particularly in education, constitutes a crucial determinant of political behaviors. We also contribute to longstanding research on social class and political behavior by showing that lower-income groups, who are more dependent on public provision, are more likely to mobilize politically in contexts of welfare deprivation. Third, we show that political reactions to institutional neglect encompass different and non-mutually exclusive forms.