Urban Segregation and Socio-Spatial Interactions: A Configurational Approach

Abstract

Abstract:Urban segregation is an inherent feature of cities and becomes a problem when excluding or hindering certain groups from accessing services, activities and spaces. In Brazil, segregation by social class is dominant in the structure of cities and public policies rarely address urban configuration as part of the segregation problem. This work addresses segregation with a shift in emphasis from traditional housing segregation to segregation as the restraint of socio-spatial interactions, thus including other facets of the phenomenon that have not yet been properly explored and seeking new spatially relevant metrics. This paper aims to present a methodology of segregation analysis based on configurational models and develop an empirical application in a Brazilian city. Representing the probabilities of interaction between different socio-economic groups in public spaces, a configurational model was used, addressing retail-residence spatial relationship. The attributes of population size, household income and number of retail establishments were considered. The results allowed identifying the probabilistic residence-retail trajectories for high and low income groups, providing a first measure of spatial segregation. The conclusions seek to highlight the importance of configurational approaches for segregation studies, as well as to show potentialities and limits of this methodology.

The Incorporation of the 2030 Agenda in the Design of Local Policies for Social Transformation in Disadvantaged Urban Areas

“…In these countries, social inequality has increased, especially since the financial crisis of 2008, a situation that has been aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic. These events have led to the loss of public confidence in the government [3] and in the increasingly incipient fragmentation of society [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19], marked by a multipolarity, where multiple centers of political and corporate power, housing markets, etc., exercise social predation from a systemic relationship, configuring diverse realities of social inequality, which are accentuated in cities all over the world [12,[20][21][22][23][24][25].…”

“…Authors such as David Harvey [29,31] and Manuel Castells [30] have already noted how cities, responding to the capitalist mode of production, have been built based on urban planning conceived in a relational way, where the urban center is defined in relation to a periphery without which it cannot exist [12,16,19,29,31,32]. This configuration of spatial forms influences the social processes that occur in cities, where the characteristics of urban planning have created both physical and social barriers that individuals cannot overcome, providing an environment for social injustice [12,16,19,23,[29][30][31]33].…”

Aplicación de un análisis clúster para el estudio de la segregación social en el municipio de Bilbao

“…Desde un enfoque geográfico, podríamos definirlo como la distribución desigual de los grupos sociales en el espacio urbano, pero las perspectivas sociológicas se centran más en la falta de interacción social entre individuos de diferentes grupos sociales. Habitualmente, los trabajos se ubican exclusivamente en una de estas perspectivas, predominando los estudios espaciales que se centran en el análisis de las localizaciones residenciales desiguales de los diferentes grupos (Maffini & Maraschin, 2018). Pero con independencia del enfoque utilizado, el hecho fundamental es que las diferencias en la distribución de la población en el interior de las ciudades pueden contribuir a modificar profundamente la composición poblacional generando diferenciación socioeconómica que se manifiesta en el surgimiento de espacios segregados en las ciudades (Palacios & Vidal, 2014).…”

“…De hecho, en el caso de España, como señalan Checa y Arjona (2006), Leal (2007) y Nel•lo (2014), la segregación se está incrementando y, en ocasiones, viene originada por las clases más acomodadas que buscan localizaciones residenciales tipo Gated Communities, comunidades cerradas y elitistas en urbanizaciones alejadas de las áreas centrales (Leal, 2007). A nivel internacional, también se aprecia un nuevo patrón de segregación: mientras las distancias entre los diferentes grupos de población se están reduciendo al estar la ciudad mejor comunicada, al mismo tiempo se están creando nuevas formas de segregación a modo de enclaves mediante el empleo de sistemas de seguridad o barreras físicas (Maffini & Maraschin, 2018).…”

Spatial Transformation of a New City in 2006–2020: Perspectives on the Spatial Dynamics, Environmental Quality Degradation, and Socio—Economic Sustainability of Local Communities in Makassar City, Indonesia

“…As such, the scope of Makassar City study is part of developing the Metropolitan Mamminasata urban area based on the Makassar-Maros-Gowa-Takalar planological deconcentration policy. The development of the city, which predominantly involves meeting the needs of housing and infrastructure, thus becomes a determinant for increasing accessibility, land use changes, and the conversion of productive agricultural land [16].…”