Geography
Segregation
Segregation refers to the enforced separation of different racial, ethnic, or social groups within a community or society. This can manifest in various forms, such as residential, educational, or economic segregation, and often results in unequal access to resources and opportunities for marginalized groups. Segregation has significant implications for the spatial organization and social dynamics of a place.
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12 Key excerpts on "Segregation"
eBook - ePub- Clementine Cottineau, Denise Pumain(Authors)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- Wiley-ISTE(Publisher)
5 Socio-spatial Segregation in CitiesRenaud LE GOIXUMR Géographie-cités 8504 CNRS, University of Paris, Institut Universitaire de France, FranceSocio-spatial Segregation in cities is based on interpretations and models that place two dimensions in tension: that of inequality, on the one hand, and that of discrimination, on the other. This chapter proposes a critical discussion of the theoretical issues, methodological presuppositions and approaches that aim to analyze Segregation in its complex and multi-scalar processes.5.1. Segregation in metropolises, renewed theoretical issues
One of the methodological and theoretical challenges in the analysis of Segregation in the contemporary city lies in the fact that the explanatory theories of Segregation are based on hypotheses of temporal transition, but administration of the proof requires an indirect measure, which is often static. The second issue is the dynamics of metropolization, which is often inferred to be the cause of the accentuation of Segregation processes.The word Segregation generally refers to geographical oppositions in the distribution of social and ethnic groups (Brun 1994). The term also refers to voluntary Segregation (discrimination) between institutions and a group or individual who is subjected to it. The spatial component is essential: “the tendency to organize space into areas of high internal social homogeneity and high social disparity between them, this disparity being understood not only in terms of difference, but of hierarchy” (Castells 1972, p. 218). There are generally many different meanings or shifts in meaning, which make it possible to identify the multiple issues at stake in Segregation, as well as the difficulty of stabilizing an analytical and empirical field, between the different levels of observation and action (macro- or micro-scalar). The observation may be static, but Segregation is also a process, the passage from a situation of mixing to a separation into homogeneous groups. The observation is often empirical, but there are studies that point to the causes and some models that explain it. Finally, analyses can focus on value judgments, perceptions, the injustice of a situation and moral presuppositions (Brun 1994).
eBook - ePub- Graham Crow, Graham Allan(Authors)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
5 ETHNICITY, SOLIDARITY AND EXCLUSION: RACE AND SPATIAL SOCIAL SegregationOne of the principal conclusions reached in the previous chapter was that geographical mobility frequently results in social Segregation, with newcomers being restricted to certain areas of a locality and developing only limited social contacts with established residents. Nowhere in Britain is this phenomenon more pronounced than in the case of minority ethnic groups, whose social Segregation is so ‘marked and enduring’ (S. Smith, 1989a, p. 18) that geographical mobility alone is clearly insufficient to explain it. The exclusion practised against ‘outsiders’ has an added dimension where ideas about ‘racial’ differences are involved, and ethnicity continues to exert a powerful influence on where an individual lives independently of how long ago migration occurred. Not only has social Segregation along ethnic lines survived when it might have been expected to diminish with the passage of time, it is also the case that in particular places physical separateness has become more prominent. In Birmingham, for example, official statistics indicate that ‘urban Segregation is increasing’, with inner-city districts becoming predominantly black and Asian while the outer city areas remain ‘as White as Torquay’ (Rex, 1988, p. 31), and this type of situation can be found in many other urban areas, as well as at a regional level (S. Smith, 1989a). The adequacy of different explanations of this segregated pattern of residence may be a matter of disagreement but the reality of manifest and persistent social Segregation along ethnic lines is itself beyond dispute. The first two sections of this chapter describe the patterns of Segregation which have occurred and the different explanations given for it. The final section concentrates specifically on the ways in which social policies have influenced ethnic Segregation.
- B. Roberts, R. Wilson, B. Roberts, R. Wilson(Authors)
- 2009(Publication Date)
- Palgrave Macmillan(Publisher)
2 Advances in Research Methods for the Study of Urban Segregation Carolina Flores T he analysis of spatial Segregation involves several methodological issues. First, there are multiple dimensions of socioeconomic resi- dential Segregation and different ways of measuring each. Second, social processes in space will not necessarily correspond to the geographi- cal definitions used in comprehensive data collection, such as national population censuses, thus creating problems of measurement. But the field of spatial statistical analysis and geocoded census data creates new opportunities for addressing these issues and advancing the state of the art. Finally, of particular relevance to this volume, is that population censuses have yet to be standardized across countries in the Americas, as has been the case with the European Union, and, thus, formal, quanti- tative cross-country comparisons are not yet feasible. In this chapter the methodological frame used in the case studies that follow is presented. This chapter first defines the multiple dimensions of Segregation and their measurement. The types of measurement errors common to this type of analysis, including the problem of areal definition and spatial autocorrelation, are explored. Finally, the types of variable and areal definitions adopted in the case studies are presented. Defining Residential Segregation Residential Segregation is defined as “the degree to which two or more groups live separately from one another, in different parts of the urban 22 FLORES environment” (Massey and Denton, 1988, p. 282). Therefore, socioeco- nomic Segregation can refer to the separation between the residences of the lower class and the residences of the middle and upper classes or to the degree to which different ethnic groups are located separately from one another in different neighborhoods of the city .
eBook - PDF- Binaya Subedi(Author)
- 2006(Publication Date)
- Information Age Publishing(Publisher)
In the first example, the movement of Native North Americans reflects a coordinated campaign to uproot people from their land. In the second example, racial and ethnic Segregation is at once a global and local phe- nomenon. One approach is a comparative case study of racial Segregation of local public spaces in the United States and that within contemporary South Africa (Smith, 2002). Another approach is to explore Segregation of immigrant communities in the United States. Consider New York’s China- town. Geography can help us deeply understand the physical and human characteristics of Chinatown. Why is Chinatown located where it is? What are its geographic boundaries? Who lives and works in Chinatown? What is the meaning of Chinatown? How do people perceive Chinatown as a place? How does New York’s Chinatown relate to the global Chinese diaspora? How does Chinatown’s landscape reflect unequal power relations? What political efforts seek to promote and preserve Chinatown as a distinct neighborhood? How does Chinatown in New York compare with San Fran- cisco’s Chinatown or Manila’s Chinatown? Regional patterns of Segregation can be compared domestically and internationally. In addition, GIS maps of census data provide critical representations of the uneven distribution of people by race, ethnicity, and income. Global educators can use such maps as a tool to interrogate larger systems of power and privilege. SOCIAL GEOGRAPHY OF WOMEN Critical global educators recognize that geography not only helps us ex- amine ethnic and race relations but also gender relations and the social standing of women. Recent explorations of the spatial terrain of women’s lived experiences include Indian women (Patel, 2006), Pakistani women (Besio, 2006; Halvorson, 2005), lesbian women (Cieri, 2003), and adoles- cent girls (Wridt, 1999) in the United States.
eBook - PDFDesegregating the City
Ghettos, Enclaves, and Inequality
- David P. Varady(Author)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- SUNY Press(Publisher)
Calling spatial Segregation by race the “missing link” in contemporary explanations of urban poverty, Douglas S. Massey and Nancy A. Denton (1993) argue that Segregation be treated as the central 88 Defining Segregation and Its Consequences force perpetuating social inequality, especially that suffered by Blacks. Beyond the stunting of interracial social and political relationships per se, the researchers point to a particularly strong emphasis on local govern- ance and finance of critical public services, such as public education, through local policymaking bodies and local property taxes. This local- ism, in turn, generates sharp spatial divisions in access to quality schools and other key institutions, a sharply uneven “geography of opportunity,” at a time when educational attainment is increasingly important in the economy (Briggs 2003b; Galster and Killen 1995). Enclavism: The Benefits of Boundaries As Peter Marcuse defines it in this volume, an enclave is “an area of spa- tial concentration in which members of a particular population group, self-defined by ethnicity, or religion, or otherwise, congregate as a means of protecting and enhancing their economic, social, political, and/or cul- tural development.” Spatial Segregation, by limiting opportunities for contacts and influence within the wider society and by promoting encla- vism of groups thus excluded, has historically been a boon to within- group solidarity and the associated patterns of mutual aid on which the disadvantaged, from inner-city Chicago to the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, have often relied significantly (Stack 1974; Woolcock and Narayan 2000). Ethnic enclave economies bear this imprint as well, from China- town in New York to Little Havana in Miami (now a largely Central and South American enclave that retains the name coined by an earlier wave of entrepreneurial Cuban immigrants). Patterns of exclusion in the wider locale create boundaries with mixed effects.
eBook - PDF- Magali Talandier, Josselin Tallec(Authors)
- 2023(Publication Date)
- Wiley-ISTE(Publisher)
These stakes are embodied in concepts, notably that of the ghetto, that center the perception of the working class. Recent approaches treat the issue in terms of diversity or “superdiversity”, yet this erases the social selectivity of certain spaces and the distancing of the working classes which are essential when analyzing urban Segregation. Thus, “if one can sometimes reproach research on Segregation for not being sufficiently situated in intersectional perspectives, for limiting itself to a reductionist vision of the individual (identified only according to his socio-professional positions or origins) and to omit the multiple interactions and relationships of daily life, we can simultaneously regret that the perspective of diversity understates the mechanisms and the underlying social devices” (Adisson et al. 2020, p. 38). The relational perspective opened up by the notion of Segregation makes it possible to understand the urban distribution of social groups as interdependent and linked to the functioning of labor markets and housing and transport policies. Thus, urban Segregation is a notion that makes it possible to grasp the processes of relegation, discrimination and exclusion, and questions not only the forms, but above all the causes of these unequal distributions of populations in urban areas 15 . 15 As Verdugo (2011) explains, the relative lack of Segregation in terms of immigrant populations in France compared to the United States can be linked to distinct mechanisms. 248 Territorial Inequalities 7.3. Analyzing the causes of Segregation In the literature, Segregation is attributed to three main sets of causes, depending on the authors and schools of thought. It is explained by the choices and preferences of individuals, by the structural logics involving economic and social mechanisms, or by institutional and political logics (Oberti and Préteceille 2016).
eBook - PDF- Susan J Smith, Rachel Pain, Sallie A Marston, John Paul Jones III, Susan J Smith, Rachel Pain, Sallie A Marston, John Paul Jones III(Authors)
- 2009(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications Ltd(Publisher)
Social geographic research during this period focused on the geography of poverty (Morrill and Wohlenberg, 1971), social inequality (D. Smith, 1973), resi-dential differentiation (Murdie, 1969), ghetto formation (H.M. Rose, 1971), residential relo-cation (Brown and Moore, 1970) and migration (Roseman, 1977), among other topics. Central, and controversial, questions in these studies were the nature and direction of spatial corre-lates: how did racial distributions relate to spa-tial patterns of poverty, for example? Whether or not the quantitative ‘spatial sociologies’ inspired by such questions could ever yield a definitive answer – could measures of the intensity of Segregation or the extent of isola-tion say anything about the degree of ‘choice’ or ‘constraint’ structured into residential pat-terns, for example – geographers made an important empirical contribution as they exper-imented with different techniques, sought cross-contextual validation of findings, and engaged with mainstream theories in sociol-ogy, economics and political science in formu-lating their hypotheses (see Del Casino and Jones III, 2007). It was not until the rise of dialectical spati-ality in the mid-to-late 1970s (Harvey, 1973; Soja, 1980; Massey, 1984; McDowell, 1983; S.J. Smith, 1984) that geographers began to conceptualize new approaches to linking society and space: not a space in which social characteristics are mapped and relations unfold on space , but a geography that is inte-gral to and formed by those characteristics and relations. An overview of this shift is given in S.J. Smith (1999, 2005). The more contemporary view – which drew in large measure on interpretations of Henri Lefebvre’s ‘production of space’ (1991, orig-inally 1974) – holds that social and spatial relations are co-determinate.
eBook - PDFWomen in 1900
Gateway to the Political Economy of the 20th Century
- Christine Bose(Author)
- 2010(Publication Date)
- Temple University Press(Publisher)
7 Regional Segregation Geography as a Context for Work T WO TYPES of geographic disparity in labor market oppor-tunities—those according to region and by population density— have caught the attention of researchers and workers alike. Geo-graphic differences in employment rates are not so much due to physical terrain as they are to the economic, social, and demo-graphic features of a specific area. In this way, place of residence sets a context that expands or limits a person’s work possibili-ties—a fact of life that was as true at the beginning of the twen-tieth century as it is today. Labor market disparities among regions occur because places tend to experience economic development at different points in time, resulting in uneven opportunities. At the beginning of the twentieth century, rapid growth in manufacturing and heavy industry was especially concentrated in the Northeast and Mid-west. This growth was the subject of unionization drives, inves-tigative journalists’ reports, labor bureau studies, and social wel-fare concerns. More recently, in the 1970s, another surge in economic restructuring occurred when the corporate search for cheaper production costs resulted in a decline in U.S. industrial manufacturing, coupled with an expansion of the service sector. This process turned some of the busy northeastern and Mid-western centers of the U.S. economy into areas dubbed the rust belt, while new job growth was taking place in the sun-belt cities of the South and Southwest. Ironically, the regions most noted for their industrial growth at the beginning of the century had become the ones undergoing deindustrialization. The second, and related, labor market disparity is encountered among areas of varying population density. Population density per se is not the force that shapes employment patterns; instead it is the other factors associated with it. Business growth creates a 190
eBook - PDF- Linda M. Lobao, Gregory Hooks, Ann R. Tickamyer, Linda M. Lobao, Gregory Hooks, Ann R. Tickamyer(Authors)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- SUNY Press(Publisher)
The discipline’s core grounding in stratifi- cation sets it apart from other social sciences, such as economics, political sci- ence, and geography. However, until the 1980s, sociologists studying inequal- ity in advanced nations neglected and, to some degree, resisted consideration of geographic territory as a base of stratification (Soja 1989). More recently, interest in space and place has blossomed, along with a new generation of theory, methods, and substantive work addressing territorial sources and out- comes of inequality. Thus, a broad movement to spatialize sociology is underway, witnessed by recent reviews assessing progress toward this goal (Gans 2002; Gieryn 2000; Lobao 1993, 2004; Tickamyer 2000). This book showcases work that contributes to this effort. The study of spatial inequality bridges sociology’s pervasive interest in social inequality with a concern for uneven development. It examines how and why markers of stratification, such as economic well-being and access to resources as well as other inequalities related to race/ethnicity, class, gender, age, and other statuses, vary and intersect across territories. The territories of interest are wide ranging and beyond sociology’s familiar focus on nations and urban areas: they include regions within a nation, states, counties, labor markets, and other locales. The study of spatial inequality thus entails the investigation of stratification across places at a variety of spatial scales. By spatial scales, we mean the geographic levels at which social processes work themselves out, are conceptualized, and are studied. Beyond recognizing variation in a descriptive sense, the goal is to identify how and why spatial context contributes to inequality. This liter- ature recognizes both the importance of where actors are located in geo- graphic space and how geographic entities themselves are molded by and mold stratification.
No longer available |Learn more- United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- United Nations Publications(Publisher)
In the aforementioned debate over the effects of socioeconomic residential Segregation, the specialized literature generally takes the view that the phenomenon has a negative impact on people and communities —especially segregated communities— and also on the governance and functioning of cities. This view is based on the conviction that a person’s place of residence influences his or her life path because: (i) it is crucial for building social networks (social capital) and for learning patterns of behaviour, codes and knowledge that are important for social performance; (ii) it is linked to the quality and quantity of available public goods, essential institutions (such as schools), government and local budgets, and private investment and jobs; (iii) it is related to exposure to various types of risk (safety, sanitation or natural disasters); and (iv) it is associated with stigma and social status (Sampson, 2012; Katzman, 2009; Zubrinsky, 2003). From this perspective, socioeconomic residential Segregation creates adversity for the people and areas that are segregated through various mechanisms, including socialization and instrumental mechanisms. Socialization mechanisms are related to social learning and its effect on the reproduction of behaviours, and they mainly affect children, adolescents and young adults. Instrumental mechanisms basically impact adults and deal with access to the resources 22 associated with territorial location and its physical, social, political and symbolic dimensions. 22 Or capital, in its various forms according to the definition by Bourdie (1986, pages 46-47). 222 Chapter V Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) The socialization mechanism incorporates a variety of theoretical models that emphasize specific channels of influence.
eBook - PDFInequality, Mobility, and Segregation
Essays in Honor of Jacques Silber
- John A. Bishop, Rafael Salas, John A. Bishop, Rafael Salas, John A. Bishop(Authors)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- Emerald Group Publishing Limited(Publisher)
Deutsch et al. (2009) used here the generalized Duncan index but they could have used in a similar way the generalized Gini Segregation index or an entropy-related index. MEASURING SPATIAL Segregation Spatial Segregation is a good illustration of the case where an additional dimension has to be introduced to measure multidimensional Segregation. Assume data are available on the distribution of ethnic groups across different geographical units (e.g., census tracts) which are part of a bigger geographical area (e.g., a metropolitan area). The measures of multi-dimensional Segregation introduced previously section would not correctly measure the degree of spatial Segregation because these indices would amount to comparing the ethnic composition of the different geographical units with the average ethnic composition in the bigger geographical area under study. A good measure of spatial Segregation should, however, take into account the ‘‘geographical component’’ of the distribution of the ethnic groups across the geographical units. One might want to know, for example, whether the ethnic groups are evenly dispersed across the various geo-graphical units or on the contrary clustered in a few specific areas. Another issue of interest may concern the location of the various ethnic groups with respect to the ‘‘center’’ of the bigger geographical area: does some ethnic group, for example, live in the suburbs of the metropolitan area and some other in the center of the city? Massey and Denton (1988) considered, thus, five aspects of residential Segregation: evenness, exposure, concentration, centralization, and cluster-ing.
eBook - PDFUnderstanding School Segregation
Patterns, Causes and Consequences of Spatial Inequalities in Education
- Xavier Bonal, Cristián Bellei(Authors)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Bloomsbury Academic(Publisher)
In this regard, it is interesting to note that, since school Segregation in many countries is greater than residential Segregation, zoning has been proposed as a way to increase social heterogeneity within schools. However, in some cases studied in this book, zoning becomes a segregating factor in itself. An additional reason for school Segregation is that not all parents respect the allocation made by public authorities; typically, the most educated and those with greater resources can influence these decisions, as shown in the cases of Peru and Argentina. In France, given the inadequate functioning of zoning in some contexts, school choice beyond the reference area was introduced as a solution, which apparently did not have the expected positive effect of higher social mixing. This is consistent with the evidence associated with the negative effects of school choice on Segregation. More generally, in several public education systems, the admission practices of schools are not particularly transparent and easily lend themselves to arbitrariness. This is due to the fact that, on the one hand, schools try to select less problematic students or avoid minority students and those who are disadvantaged and hinder the teaching process or the school’s performance, while, on the other hand, families carry out different practices to influence the allocation process of school places. Several countries have introduced measures to make these systems more transparent, non- discriminatory and even progressive, but experience suggests unequal effects in this respect. 3.2 DeSegregation policies in a market-oriented context Beyond ‘traditional’ forms of Segregation, based on fairly widespread characteristics of public education systems, there are forms of Segregation associated with market or quasi- market dynamics, which are identified as producers of school Segregation in several studies.
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