The Spatial Structure and Local Experience of Segregation in Houston, TX

• In Event: 2244 - The Politics of Spatial Exclusion

Abstract

This article contributes to a deeper understanding of segregation by examining the role of the built environment in creating separate residential spaces and facilitating ethnoracial segregation. We examine the extent to which road connectivity and physical barriers—such as highways, railroad tracks, and waterways—structure spatial patterns of racial and ethnic residential segregation and shape how segregation is locally experienced by residents in Houston, Texas. We measure residential segregation with attention to the proximity and road connectivity between locations, which allows us to identify areas where physical barriers mark a social boundary between geographic areas with different racial and ethnic compositions. Our mixed methods approach integrates ethnographic observation of three such areas to investigate residents' perceptions and local experience of social and spatial division. The results reveal that physical barriers are associated with heightened levels of ethnoracial segregation, and Houstonians experience the barriers as physical impediments to interaction and symbolic markers of perceived distinctions between groups. Although barriers like highways, railroad tracks, and bayous are not inherently harbingers of ethnoracial segregation, our study illustrates that physical barriers can provide the infrastructure for social boundaries and facilitate durable neighborhood racial divisions.

Authors

• Elizabeth Roberto, Rice University

• Elizabeth Korver-Glenn, University of New Mexico