The hidden traits of endemic illiteracy in cities

Alves, LGA, Anrade, JS, Hanley, QS ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8189-9550 and Ribeiro, HV, 2019. The hidden traits of endemic illiteracy in cities. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 515, pp. 566-574. ISSN 0378-4371

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Abstract

In spite of the considerable progress towards reducing illiteracy rates, many countries, including developed ones, have encountered difficulty achieving further reduction in these rates. This is worrying because illiteracy has been related to numerous health, social, and economic problems. Here, we show that the spatial patterns of illiteracy in urban systems have several features analogous to the spread of diseases such as dengue and obesity. Our results reveal that illiteracy rates are spatially long-range correlated, displaying non-trivial clustering structures characterized by percolation-like transitions and fractality. These patterns can be described in the context of percolation theory of long-range correlated systems at criticality. Together, these results provide evidence that the illiteracy incidence can be related to an infectious-like process, in which the lack of access to minimal education propagates in a population in a similar fashion to endemic diseases.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications
Creators:	Alves, L.G.A., Anrade, J.S., Hanley, Q.S. and Ribeiro, H.V.
Publisher:	Elsevier
Date:	1 February 2019
Volume:	515
ISSN:	0378-4371
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1016/j.physa.2018.09.153 DOI S0378437118312718 Publisher Item Identifier
Divisions:	Schools > School of Science and Technology
Record created by:	Linda Sullivan
Date Added:	27 Sep 2018 10:11
Last Modified:	04 Oct 2019 03:00
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/34591

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