9: Inequality and segregation Flashcards
Urban morphology: the study of the physical or built form of cities.
- Examination of the patterns and development of the urban spatial structures.
- Mapping street patterns, building styles, size and shape of land etc.
Urban morphology informs about spatial variation in environmental quality:
Different levels of quality between urban areas
* Processes of change: renovation and upgrading vs
decay and downgrading
* Such levels and changes are linked to social polarization and inequality
segregation, polarization and gentrification in cities
Factor analysis/factorial ecology: measuring links between various factors (age, income, gender, ethnicity) and spatial patterns.
Residential differentiation in cities in the developed industrial world are dominated by:
* Socio economic status
* Family status/lifecycle
* Ethnicity
Factorial ecology in the future
Demographic, cultural, political and technological changes will lead to:
A more complex set of factors that results in more spatial differentiation.
* More differentiation within factors, such as migrant status, occupational differentiation, level of welfare dependency, etc.
* Long-standing differences between suburbs and the central city are disappearing.
Patterns of social well-being:
- quality of life
(air pollution, housing, education, welfare-dependency, facilities, drug offences, family stability) - deprivation and disadvantage
(health, housing, social status, unemployment). - material consumption and lifestyle
(income, wealth, ideals, achievement and self-expression)
Are Western cities becoming socially polarized?
Disappearance of middle classes
Conspicuous consumption new urban elites
Growth of impoverished areas , characterized by drug addiction, vagrancy, cheap taverns, destroyed buildings.
Problematic:
Increasing income inequality , but overall improvement and higher skilled jobs.
US: growing inequality
Europe: more unemployment
urban segregation: the spatial separation of social groups into different neighborhoods.
Reasons:
* Private prejudice against ‘others’
* Institutionalized discrimination on the basis of class, culture, ethnicity, race, gender, etc.
The desire of people to preserve their own group identity or lifestyle.
Urban social closure: The exclusion of groups from desirable spaces and resources.
How? Powerful groups have the ability to exercise power in a downward direction, excluding less powerful groups.
Result:
Separate housing
Segregated schools
Segregated shopping areas and recreational facilities
Gentrification: renovation and renewal of inner-city areas through an influx of more affluent persons.
Result:
- Urban renewal/real estate investment (better houses, new shops, restaurants, etc.)
- Working-class neighborhoods become middle class
- Demographic changes: from black/colored to white
neighborhoods and from low education to high education
Gentrification
Positive effects:
* Renovation of houses, buildings, streets, squares, etc.
* Changes in social structures ( in terms of income, occupation, education, cultural background, family structure, and life experience).
* Improvement of neighborhood amenities (education, transit, health facilities, etc.)
* Lower levels of crime = Upgrade of the area
Negative effects:
* Rising rent, home and property prices > less affordable housing
* Most amenities not accessible to low-income households
* Increasing power of real estate companies
* Loss of cultural heritage = Dislocation of low-income residents
Minority groups are the most likely to be excluded:
* Prejudices against race, religion, and culture.
* Public anxiety about migrants.
Result: urban segregation of minority groups.
How to measure the degree to which a minority group is residentially segregated?
Index of dissimilarity
* Africa-Americans, Puerto Ricans and Cubans in US cities the most segregated
* Minority group residential segregation much lower in European cities
* Segregation of rural migrants in Chinese cities
Internal group cohesiveness
Residential segregation of minority groups also explained by the clustering of minority groups themselves.
Why? Immigrants are inclined to strengthen internal cohesion as a response to external threats
Four important functions of clustering:
* Defense (against discrimination)
* Mutual support (welfare, labor networks, informal ties)
* Cultural preservation (food customs, religious rules, marriage patterns)
* Attack or resistance (electoral power, against law enforcement)
ethnic residential segregation
Central questions:
1. Are there increasing levels of segregation?
2. Why do different minority groups show different levels of segregation?
3. Is ethnic residential segregation desirable?
The findings focus on the US:
* The larger the ethnic groups, the greater the degree of segregation
* The larger the urban area, the greater the degree of segregation
* However, the level of segregation of African-American groups declines.
