IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v141y2021ics0305750x21000097.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fractal urbanism: City size and residential segregation in India

Author

Listed:
  • Bharathi, Naveen
  • Malghan, Deepak
  • Mishra, Sumit
  • Rahman, Andaleeb

Abstract

We present the first ever large-scale snapshot of urban residential segregation in India at the neighborhood-scale. Our analysis from 147 largest cities in contemporary India shows how caste-based residential segregation is independent of city size (our sample includes all cities in India with at least 0.3 million residents in 2011). The extent of segregation in the largest metropolitan centers with over ten million residents closely tracks cities that are nearly two orders-of-magnitude smaller. We also show how residential segregation across a large swathe of urban India mirrors the spatial geometry of rural India. Our findings call into question one of the central normative promises of modernization in India and elsewhere — the gradual withering of traditional ascriptive identities such as caste. Our paper also contributes to the emerging debates in urban segregation by developing an interdisciplinary framework for analytical and empirical operationalization of a neighborhood unit.

Suggested Citation

  • Bharathi, Naveen & Malghan, Deepak & Mishra, Sumit & Rahman, Andaleeb, 2021. "Fractal urbanism: City size and residential segregation in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:141:y:2021:i:c:s0305750x21000097
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105397
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X21000097
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105397?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shamsher Singh & Madhura Swaminathan & V. K. Ramachandran, 2013. "Housing Shortages in Rural India," Journal, Review of Agrarian Studies, vol. 3(2), pages 54-72, July, 201.
    2. James Sakoda, 1981. "A generalized index of dissimilarity," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 18(2), pages 245-250, May.
    3. Logan, Trevon D. & Parman, John M., 2017. "The National Rise in Residential Segregation," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 77(1), pages 127-170, March.
    4. Devadoss, Stephen & Luckstead, Jeff & Danforth, Diana & Akhundjanov, Sherzod, 2016. "The power law distribution for lower tail cities in India," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 442(C), pages 193-196.
    5. Peter Bergman & Raj Chetty & Stefanie DeLuca & Nathaniel Hendren & Lawrence F. Katz & Christopher Palmer, 2024. "Creating Moves to Opportunity: Experimental Evidence on Barriers to Neighborhood Choice," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 114(5), pages 1281-1337, May.
    6. Jennifer Robinson & Ananya Roy, 2016. "Debate on Global Urbanisms and the Nature of Urban Theory," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 181-186, January.
    7. Tariq Thachil, 2017. "Do Rural Migrants Divide Ethnically in the City? Evidence from an Ethnographic Experiment in India," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 61(4), pages 908-926, October.
    8. Humphreys, Macartan & Scacco, Alexandra, 2020. "The aggregation challenge," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    9. Douglas Massey & Nancy Denton, 1989. "Hypersegregation in U.S. Metropolitan Areas: Black and Hispanic Segregation Along Five Dimensions," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 26(3), pages 373-391, August.
    10. Humphreys, Macartan & Scacco, Alexandra, 2020. "The aggregation challenge," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 127, pages 1-3.
    11. Kaivan Munshi, 2014. "Community Networks and the Process of Development," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 28(4), pages 49-76, Fall.
    12. Madalina Olteanu & Julien Randon-Furling & William A. V. Clark, 2019. "Segregation through the multiscalar lens," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 116(25), pages 12250-12254, June.
    13. David M. Cutler & Edward L. Glaeser & Jacob L. Vigdor, 1999. "The Rise and Decline of the American Ghetto," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(3), pages 455-506, June.
    14. Jessica Trounstine, 2016. "Segregation and Inequality in Public Goods," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 60(3), pages 709-725, July.
    15. Sripad Motiram & Vamsi Vakulabharanam, 2020. "Intra-City Inequalities, Neighborhoods and Economic Development," Working Papers 2020-01, University of Massachusetts Boston, Economics Department.
    16. Banerjee, Biswajit & Knight, J. B., 1985. "Caste discrimination in the Indian urban labour market," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 277-307, April.
    17. Auerbach, Adam Michael, 2017. "Neighborhood Associations and the Urban Poor: India’s Slum Development Committees," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 119-135.
    18. Douglas J. Krupka, 2007. "Are Big Cities More Segregated? Neighbourhood Scale and the Measurement of Segregation," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 44(1), pages 187-197, January.
    19. Krishna,Anirudh, 2017. "The Broken Ladder," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108415927, November.
    20. Deshpande, Ashwani, 2011. "The Grammar of Caste: Economic Discrimination in Contemporary India," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198072034.
    21. W. Clark, 1991. "Residential preferences and neighborhood racial segregation: A test of the schelling segregation model," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 28(1), pages 1-19, February.
    22. Sai Balakrishnan, 2019. "Recombinant Urbanization: Agrarian–urban Landed Property and Uneven Development in India," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(4), pages 617-632, July.
    23. Shamsher Singh, 2015. "Residential Segregation and Access to Basic Amenities: A Village-Level Case Study," Journal, Review of Agrarian Studies, vol. 5(2), pages 126-146, July-Dece.
    24. Raj Chetty & Nathaniel Hendren & Lawrence F. Katz, 2016. "The Effects of Exposure to Better Neighborhoods on Children: New Evidence from the Moving to Opportunity Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(4), pages 855-902, April.
    25. Kaivan Munshi, 2019. "Caste and the Indian Economy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 57(4), pages 781-834, December.
    26. Gaurav Datt & Martin Ravallion & Rinku Murgai, 2020. "Poverty and Growth in India over Six Decades," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 102(1), pages 4-27, January.
    27. Mitra, Arup & Nagar, Jay Prakash, 2018. "City size, deprivation and other indicators of development: Evidence from India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 273-283.
    28. Singh, Shamsher, 2015. "Residential Segregation and Access to Basic Amenities: A Village-Level Case Study," Review of Agrarian Studies, Foundation for Agrarian Studies, vol. 5(2), December.
    29. Mosse, David, 2018. "Caste and development: Contemporary perspectives on a structure of discrimination and advantage," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 422-436.
    30. Deshpande, Ashwini & Ramachandran, Rajesh, 2019. "Traditional hierarchies and affirmative action in a globalizing economy: Evidence from India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 63-78.
    31. Partha Mukhopadhyay & Marie‐Hélène Zérah & Eric Denis, 2020. "Subaltern Urbanization: Indian Insights for Urban Theory," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(4), pages 582-598, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sheba Tejani, 2023. "Saffron geographies of exclusion: The Disturbed Areas Act of Gujarat," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(4), pages 597-619, March.
    2. Assem Abu Hatab & Padmaja Ravula & Swamikannu Nedumaran & Carl-Johan Lagerkvist, 2022. "Perceptions of the impacts of urban sprawl among urban and peri-urban dwellers of Hyderabad, India: a Latent class clustering analysis," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(11), pages 12787-12812, November.
    3. Joe F. Bozeman & Shauhrat S. Chopra & Philip James & Sajjad Muhammad & Hua Cai & Kangkang Tong & Maya Carrasquillo & Harold Rickenbacker & Destenie Nock & Weslynne Ashton & Oliver Heidrich & Sybil Der, 2023. "Three research priorities for just and sustainable urban systems: Now is the time to refocus," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 27(2), pages 382-394, April.
    4. Randhi Atiqi & Muhammad Dimyati & Ahmad Gamal & Rizki Pramayuda, 2022. "Appraisal of Building Price in Urban Area Using Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) Data in Depok City," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-15, August.
    5. Yang, Xiaozhong & Zhang, Cheng, 2022. "Spatial investments in the real estate industry: Based on the population flow within the city," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 593-603.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bhowmick, Kanishka & Dasgupta, Indraneel & Pal, Sarmistha, 2024. "Within-Group Inequality and Caste-Based Crimes in India," IZA Discussion Papers 17383, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Chhavi Tiwari & Srinivas Goli & Mohammad Zahid Siddiqui & Pradeep S. Salve, 2022. "Poverty, wealth inequality and financial inclusion among castes in Hindu and Muslim communities in Uttar Pradesh, India," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(6), pages 1227-1255, August.
    3. Suanna Oh, 2023. "Does Identity Affect Labor Supply?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 113(8), pages 2055-2083, August.
    4. Bailwal, Neha & Paul, Sourabh Bikas, 2024. "Village dominance and learning gaps in rural India," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 219(C), pages 52-73.
    5. Shukla, Prakash Kumar & Reddy A, Bheemeshwar & Kumar, Dushyant, 2024. "Class in caste: Inequalities in human capital investments in children in India," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    6. Aaronson, Daniel & Faber, Jacob & Hartley, Daniel & Mazumder, Bhashkar & Sharkey, Patrick, 2021. "The long-run effects of the 1930s HOLC “redlining” maps on place-based measures of economic opportunity and socioeconomic success," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    7. Victoria Gregory & Julian Kozlowski & Hannah Rubinton, 2022. "The Impact of Racial Segregation on College Attainment in Spatial Equilibrium," Working Papers 2022-036, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, revised 27 Nov 2024.
    8. Anandi Mani & Emma Riley, 2019. "Social networks, role models, peer effects, and aspirations," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-120, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    9. Dasgupta, Indraneel & Pal, Sarmistha, 2021. "Touch thee not: Group conflict, caste power and untouchability in rural India," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 442-466.
    10. Yatish Kumar & Priya Bhakat, 2022. "Social Capital in Old-Age and the Role of the Social Marginalisation," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 163(1), pages 371-388, August.
    11. Peter Bergman & Eric W. Chan & Adam Kapor, 2020. "Housing Search Frictions: Evidence from Detailed Search Data and a Field Experiment," NBER Working Papers 27209, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Chong Lu, 2022. "The effect of migration on rural residents’ intergenerational subjective social status mobility in China," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 56(5), pages 3279-3308, October.
    13. Lévêque, Christophe & Saleh, Mohamed, 2018. "Does industrialization affect segregation? Evidence from nineteenth-century Cairo," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 40-61.
    14. Yasser Razak Hussain & Pranab Mukhopadhyay, 2023. "How Much do Education, Experience, and Social Networks Impact Earnings in India? A Panel Data Analysis Disaggregated by Class, Gender, Caste and Religion," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.
    15. Bayer, Patrick & McMillan, Robert & Rueben, Kim S., 2004. "What drives racial segregation? New evidence using Census microdata," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 514-535, November.
    16. Deshpande, Ashwini & Goel, Deepti & Khanna, Shantanu, 2018. "Bad Karma or Discrimination? Male–Female Wage Gaps Among Salaried Workers in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 331-344.
    17. Tabellini, Marco, 2020. "Racial Heterogeneity and Local Government Finances: Evidence from the Great Migration," CEPR Discussion Papers 14319, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Suzane Bellue, 2023. "Why Don’t Poor Families Move? A Spatial Equilibirum Analysis of Parental Decisions with Social Learning," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2023_472, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    19. Simon Burgess & Deborah Wilson & Ruth Lupton, 2005. "Parallel Lives? Ethnic Segregation in Schools and Neighbourhoods," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 42(7), pages 1027-1056, June.
    20. Sania Ashraf & Cristina Bicchieri & Upasak Das & Tanu Gupta & Alex Shpenev, 2024. "Learning from diversity: ``jati" fractionalization, social expectations and improved sanitation practices in India," Discussion Papers 24-01, Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:141:y:2021:i:c:s0305750x21000097. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.