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Patterns of Residential Segregation

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  • Rémi Louf
  • Marc Barthelemy

Abstract

The spatial distribution of income shapes the structure and organisation of cities and its understanding has broad societal implications. Despite an abundant literature, many issues remain unclear. In particular, all definitions of segregation are implicitely tied to a single indicator, usually rely on an ambiguous definition of income classes, without any consensus on how to define neighbourhoods and to deal with the polycentric organization of large cities. In this paper, we address all these questions within a unique conceptual framework. We avoid the challenge of providing a direct definition of segregation and instead start from a definition of what segregation is not. This naturally leads to the measure of representation that is able to identify locations where categories are over- or underrepresented. From there, we provide a new measure of exposure that discriminates between situations where categories co-locate or repel one another. We then use this feature to provide an unambiguous, parameter-free method to find meaningful breaks in the income distribution, thus defining classes. Applied to the 2014 American Community Survey, we find 3 emerging classes—low, middle and higher income—out of the original 16 income categories. The higher-income households are proportionally more present in larger cities, while lower-income households are not, invalidating the idea of an increased social polarisation. Finally, using the density—and not the distance to a center which is meaningless in polycentric cities—we find that the richer class is overrepresented in high density zones, especially for larger cities. This suggests that density is a relevant factor for understanding the income structure of cities and might explain some of the differences observed between US and European cities.

Suggested Citation

  • Rémi Louf & Marc Barthelemy, 2016. "Patterns of Residential Segregation," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(6), pages 1-20, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0157476
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0157476
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    3. König, Christian & Salomo, Katja & Helbig, Marcel, 2024. "Understanding Variation in Neighbourhood Environmental Inequalities: The Influence of Residential Segregation, Gentrification, and other City-Level Factors," SocArXiv j4tf2, Center for Open Science.
    4. Julien Randon-Furling & Madalina Olteanu & Antoine Lucquiaud, 2020. "From urban segregation to spatial structure detection," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 47(4), pages 645-661, May.
    5. König, Christian & Salomo, Katja & Helbig, Marcel, 2024. "Understanding Variation in Neighbourhood Environmental Inequalities: The Influence of Residential Segregation, Gentrification, and other City-Level Factors," SocArXiv j4tf2_v1, Center for Open Science.
    6. Gyoungju Lee & Beomsoo Jeong & Seungwook Go, 2024. "Exploring Urban Amenity Accessibility within Residential Segregation: Evidence from Seoul’s Apartment Housing," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-18, June.
    7. Anthony FJ van Raan, 2024. "Simulating urban scaling with a term linkages network of a university," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 51(9), pages 2092-2107, November.
    8. Popescu, Ioana & Gibson, Ben & Matthews, Luke & Zhang, Shiyuan & Escarce, José J. & Schuler, Megan & Damberg, Cheryl L., 2024. "The segregation of physician networks providing care to black and white patients with heart disease: Concepts, measures, and empirical evaluation," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 343(C).
    9. Carlos Mejia-Arbelaez & Olga L. Sarmiento & Rodrigo Mora Vega & Mónica Flores Castillo & Ricardo Truffello & Lina Martínez & Catalina Medina & Oscar Guaje & José David Pinzón Ortiz & Andres F Useche &, 2021. "Social Inclusion and Physical Activity in Ciclovía Recreativa Programs in Latin America," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(2), pages 1-24, January.
    10. Helbig, Marcel, 2023. "Hinter den Fassaden: Zur Ungleichverteilung von Armut, Reichtum, Bildung und Ethnie in den deutschen Städten," Discussion Papers, Presidential Department P 2023-003, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.

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