Marginalized Living and Disabling Spaces: A Bio-Cognitive Perspective

Giulia Candeloro, Maria Tartari, Riccardo Varveri, Miriam D’Ignazio, Luciana Mastrolonardo and Pier Luigi Sacco ()
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Giulia Candeloro: Department of Neurosciences, Imaging and Clinical Science, Università Degli Studi Chieti-Pescara “Gabriele d’Annunzio”, 66100 Chieti, Italy
Maria Tartari: Istituto di Scienze del Patrimonio Culturale, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, 80134 Naples, Italy
Riccardo Varveri: Department of Neurosciences, Imaging and Clinical Science, Università Degli Studi Chieti-Pescara “Gabriele d’Annunzio”, 66100 Chieti, Italy
Miriam D’Ignazio: Department of Innovative Technologies in Medicine & Dentistry, Università Degli Studi Chieti-Pescara “Gabriele d’Annunzio”, 66100 Chieti, Italy
Luciana Mastrolonardo: Department of Architecture, Università Degli Studi Chieti-Pescara “Gabriele d’Annunzio”, 65127 Pescara, Italy
Pier Luigi Sacco: Department of Neurosciences, Imaging and Clinical Science, Università Degli Studi Chieti-Pescara “Gabriele d’Annunzio”, 66100 Chieti, Italy

Land, 2025, vol. 14, issue 11, 1-30

Abstract: This paper advances a novel bio-cognitive framework for understanding how urban peripheries function as disabling environments that systematically undermine human flourishing. Drawing on recent theoretical developments in predictive processing, 4E cognition (embodied, embedded, enactive, and extended), and biology, we propose that marginalization in urban contexts emerges not merely from socio-economic deprivation but from fundamental disruptions to cognitive, physiological, and embodied processes. Our analysis illustrates how peripheral spaces operate as neuro-affective ecologies that constrain agency through the breakdown of sensorimotor coupling, the generation of persistent prediction errors, and the activation of chronic stress responses. We argue that environmental features characteristic of urban peripheries, such as fragmented infrastructure, limited affordances, and unpredictable spatial configurations, create conditions where the dynamic interplay between body, brain, and environment systematically impairs inhabitants’ capacity for effective action and adaptation. This bio-cognitive perspective challenges conventional approaches that frame peripheries primarily through geographic or policy lenses, instead revealing how spatial injustice also operates at the intersection of neural, bodily, and environmental processes. Our framework contributes to emerging debates on spatial justice by providing a scientifically grounded account of how built environments become constitutively disabling, offering new conceptual tools for policy interventions that address the embodied and cognitive dimensions of urban inequality. The implications extend beyond urban planning to fundamental questions about how environments shape human potential and the ethical imperatives of creating spaces that support rather than constrain human flourishing.

Keywords: urban peripheries; embodied cognition; predictive processing; spatial justice; disabling environments; bio-cognitive framework; 4E cognition; Free Energy Principle; environmental neuroscience; marginalization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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