‘The Inner Citadels of the Color Line’: Mapping the Micro‐Ecology of Racial Segregation in Everyday Life Spaces

Self Cite

We investigate the effects of sociopolitical change on intergroup contact and social distance attitudes in South Africa, and the effect of these variables on intergroup attitudes and racial policy attitudes. The data come from secondary analysis of surveys conducted between 1991 and 2005, as well as a dedicated survey conducted in 2006. The results reveal widespread racial isolation among Black people; ambivalent attitudes to racial integration among Whites, who support integration in principle but are opposed to it personally; and contrasting outcomes of contact for Blacks and Whites. Increased intergroup contact was associated with reduced stereotyping and increased support for transformation policies among Whites but was associated with increased opposition to transformation policies among Blacks. Contrary to the predictions of contact theory, attitudes of Blacks and Whites toward Coloured and Indian compatriots were generally more negative in provinces with high levels of intergroup contact between these groups.This article uses survey data to describe the changing pattern and effects of racial contact in postapartheid South Africa. Apartheid policies of "separate development" clearly demarcated Black homelands from the rest of (White) South Africa and created an urban geography of wealthy White inner cities and suburbs, with impoverished Black townships and informal settlements on the outskirts

mentioning

confidence: 96%

Racial Contact and Change in South Africa

Durrheim

Dixon

2010

Self Cite

“…Recent research, particularly in South Africa, has focused on the “microecology of contact,” typically in naturally occurring conditions of contact between races (Dixon, Tredoux, Durrheim, Finchilescu, & Clack, 2008; Durrheim & Dixon, 2005). Observational studies in South Africa of the behavior of members of different race groups in a variety of settings, including beaches, nightclubs, dining halls, and public spaces in universities have shown that the groups tend to self‐segregate and avoid intergroup interactions (Alexander & Tredoux, this issue; Dixon & Durrheim, 2003; Schrieff, Tredoux, Dixon, & Finchilescu, 2005; Tredoux, Dixon, Underwood, Nunez, & Finchilescu, 2005).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Intergroup Anxiety in Interracial Interaction: The Role of Prejudice and Metastereotypes

Finchilescu

2010

Self Cite

Intergroup contact is known to promote positive intergroup relations. However, in natural settings race groups tend to self-segregate. Prejudice and metaperceptions are hypothesized to act as barriers to mixing. The experiment reported in this article investigates the role of prejudice and metastereotypes in producing the intergroup anxiety experienced in a simulated contact situation. The experiment was replicated at three different universities and involved different combinations of race groups. Participants believed that they were communicating in an Internet chatroom with two other students, who were either of the same or of a different race to themselves. Participants' level of prejudice and degree of negative metastereotypes were both found to be predictors of the intergroup anxiety experienced in this interaction, with metastereotypes emerging as more important. The implications of these results for addressing negative intergroup relations in South Africa are discussed.

“…First is the microecological work pioneered by Dixon and colleagues (e.g., Dixon & Durrheim, 2003; Dixon, Tredoux, & Clack, 2005; Dixon, Tredoux, Durrheim, Finchilescu, & Clack, 2008; Tredoux & Dixon, 2009). This research points to the interconnectedness of contact and segregation, and to the reproduction of patterns of segregation at the microscale of everyday life.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Mediators of the Contact-Prejudice Relation among South African Students on Four University Campuses

Tredoux

Finchilescu

2010

Self Cite

Intergroup contact is undoubtedly associated with lower levels of self-reported prejudice. In some situations, however, contact may have little or no association with prejudice. Studies conducted in apartheid South Africa rarely found such an association. Apartheid was overturned in 1994, but there have been few explicit tests of the relationship since then. The present study explored the relation between contact and prejudice in a large (N = 2,599) and diverse nonprobability sample of South Africans. Participants were recruited from four universities. In addition, factors were explored that might modulate the contact -prejudice relation, or have independent effects. The relation between prejudice and contact was larger for affective prejudice (r ≈ |.35|) than for social distance (r ≈ |.2|). Analysis showed that the effects of contact were not reducible to those of other variables, although the contact -prejudice relation was mediated in many instances.Relations between spatially contiguous ethnic or racial groups are often conflictual. A review by Gallagher (2004) identified 94 major conflicts between 1945 and 1988, including several cases of genocide, and 208 successful coups or revolutions. A central concern of social psychology has long been the understanding of such ethnic violence, and its warning signs-prejudice, ethnocentrism, ingroup favoritism.