The Resolution of Segregation in U.S. Cities

• In Event: 559 - Regular Session. Segregation

Abstract

Segregation is a ubiquitous experience in American society. We are segregated in schools, in occupations, in neighborhoods. We live in red states and blue states. We commonly recognize that segregation can take on a number of different forms and occur at different levels of social organization. Rich and poor live in the same city, but poor residents live on the other side of the tracks. This paper is specifically concerned with the spatial form of residential segregation by race and ethnicity in U.S. cities. One can imagine that the experience of living in a city divided into large, racially homogenous areas and a city with a patchwork of racial or ethnic enclaves is quite different, yet aspatial measures tend to find the same level of segregation for both cities. I outline a new method for studying segregation that foregrounds the role of spatial boundaries in shaping the social organization of cities, and aligns the measurement of distance with the way it is locally experienced. I study segregation at a variety of geographic scales in each city and compare results across cities focusing on a few key comparisons – the relationship between spatial and aspatial segregation levels, and characteristic trends across increasingly large geographic scales. I find that the scale of segregation varies substantially across cities. Even cities with similar aspatial segregation results and similar population size and racial composition, nonetheless have different forms of segregation. Accounting for the geographic scale of residential segregation allows more appropriate comparisons of segregation across cities.

Author

• Elizabeth Roberto, Yale University