Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Residential segregation refers to the differential distribution of groups across space, and is usually thought of in terms of the degree to which various groups reside in different neighborhoods. People are residentially segregated across a number of dimensions, including age, socioeconomic status, and (the focus here) race and ethnicity. It is commonly thought that differences in residential patterns across racial and ethnic groups reflect social distance. Residential segregation, particularly when resulting from discrimination, has negative consequences for minority group members. Residential segregation limits residential choice, constrains economic and educational opportunities by limiting people's access to good schools and jobs, serves to concentrate poverty in disadvantaged neighborhoods, and contributes to social exclusion and alienation. Residential segregation also affects the nature and quality of intergroup relations in society: segregation reduces contact between groups and both causes and reflects polarization across communities. The residential patterns of minority groups in the US have been the object of study for many decades. W. E. B. DuBois, for example, documented the residential patterns of blacks in Philadelphia's seventh ward in his 1899 book, The Philadelphia Negro . Another example is Louis Wirth's The Ghetto (1928), which compared the similarities between ... log in or subscribe to read full text