POVERTY SEGREGATION IN WEST GERMAN CITIES - THE "AMERICANIZATION" HYPOTHESIS AND ITS EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE

It is generally assumed that the segregation of the poor in German cities is increasing as a result of cumulative polarization processes in a capitalist economy. This has led to the assumption that German cities are increasingly becoming similar to American cities. The idea of an "Americanization" specifically includes the development of the inner-city "poverty ghettos" and their adverse implications for urban social development in general, which is the focus of this paper. Empirical findings based on analyses in five major German cities do not support these assumptions. In particular there is evidence that local businesses can function as a stabilizing factor in high-poverty neighborhoods, which counteracts developments that are associated with American "poverty ghettos." These findings indicate that the significance of poverty segregation is overestimated in the debate on urban social development in Germany. Rather, a conceptualization of urban social development needs to integrate the structure and development of both population and local business at the neighborhood level. [Key words: poverty, segregation, ghetto, local business, Germany.]     

转型期城市低收入邻里的类型、特征和产生机制:以南京市为例

本文以南京市为例,检查转型期城市贫困人口的空间分布特征,并着重分析贫困人口集中的低收入邻里的类型、特征及其产生机制。研究表明,转型期我国城市贫困人口的空间分布表现为在邻里或社区层面上的集中。城市贫困人口在邻里层次上的集聚,导致三种类型低收入邻里的产生,包括老城衰退邻里、退化的工人新村和农民工集聚区(城中村)。分析表明,这些低收入邻里的产生源于国家导向的城市发展政策和国家福利住房供应制度,并在住房市场化和房地产导向的城市发展过程中得以强化。基于南京市的实证分析和实地调查,城市贫困人口的空间分布状况和低收入邻里的特征被检查,低收入邻里的产生机制得以验证。     

BEYOND THE STREET CORNER: THE HIDDEN DIVERSITY OF HIGH-POVERTY NEIGHBORHOODS

The widely reported social pathologies of urban ghettos, barrios, and other slum areas have played a prominent role in the backlash against Aid to Families with Dependent Children and other social programs. The policy debate, however, has been fueled by a series of stereotypes about the characteristics of the residents of such neighborhoods. This article complements existing ethnographic research on high-poverty neighborhoods by examining social and economic data from the 1990 Census on all neighborhoods in U.S. metropolitan areas. High-poverty areas are found to contain a surprising amount of social and economic diversity. Although some residents clearly engage in “underclass” lifestyles, many of their neighbors are not public-assistance recipients and do participate in the labor market, albeit in lower-skill occupations and for fewer hours and lower wages. Other similarities and differences between high-poverty areas and other neighborhoods are explored, leading to a richer understanding of the nature of concentrated urban poverty.     

Changing patterns of residential and workplace segregation in the Stockholm metropolitan area

Immigrant–native segregation is present in the spaces in which individuals from different ethnic/racial groups practice their everyday lives; interact with others and develop their ethnic, social and spatial networks. The overwhelming majority of academic research on immigrant segregation has focused on the residential domain, thus largely overlooking other arenas of daily interaction. The present study contributes to the emerging literature on immigrant residential and workplace segregation by examining changes in patterns of residential and workplace segregation over time. We draw our data from the Stockholm metropolitan region, Sweden’s main port of entry for immigrants. The results suggest a close association between residential and workplace segregation. Immigrant groups that are more segregated at home are also more segregated in workplace neighborhoods. More importantly, we found that a changing segregation level in one domain tends to involve a similar trend in the other domain.     

苏州老城区衰退邻里居住满意度及影响因素

转型时期中国社会经济经历了巨大转型,居住分异加剧,新城市贫困现象在特定人群和空间集聚,老城衰退邻里就是其中之一。通过对苏州老城区6个典型社区的调查,发现老城区居民居住满意度存在环境类型、空间类型、更新类型和人群分异。居住满意度主要受住房条件、社区环境、配套设施和社会网络影响,其中城市历史社会空间结构奠定了城市环境质量的总体格局,具体设施条件受建成时间、维护水平、人口密度和更新机会的影响;城市更新、原住民比例下降和外来人口迁入导致的人口置换过程破坏了原本良好的社会网络,降低了居住满意度,减少了脱贫机会。从微观社区尺度研究老城衰退邻里的居住满意度及影响因素,不仅能加深对新城市贫困现象的理解,也有利于未来有针对性地制定城市更新规划和扶贫策略。     

BEYOND POSTMODERNISM

By simultaneously controlling for the spatial and social characteristics of neighborhoods, this study sheds new empirical light on the relationship between ethnic-enclave residence and ethnic-niche employment. Considering women's commuting constraints and their theoretically more local social networks, this study explores whether residential segregation may be a more important determinant of labor-market segregation for immigrant women than for men. The study finds that residential segregation plays an important role in sustaining labor-market segregation among immigrants, and that gender emerges as a salient mediating factor. While living in an ethnic enclave tends to be associated with ethnic-niche employment for both men and women, women who live in enclave neighborhoods have a higher rate of ethnic-niche employment than men. However, greater geographic accessibility to niche jobs is associated with niche employment for both immigrant men and women in general, and place-based context seems as important to men as women.     

The concentration of urban crime in space by race: evidence from South Africa

Crime inequality in neighborhoods by race is blamed on social inequalities borne out of segregation and economic discrimination. South Africa is a country synonymous with racial-spatial segregation and discrimination as a result of legislatively enforced policies of the former apartheid government. This study examines whether urban crime inequalities by race exist in the city of Tshwane, South Africa and identifies the empirical causes of these crime inequalities. Violent and sexual crime was found to concentrate in Black African neighborhoods, while property crime was concentrated in neighborhoods classified as “Mixed”. The causes of crime in neighborhoods were found to vary across racial groups with results suggesting non-uniformity in the extent to which the various constructs impact crime based on race. The results challenge the notion that segregation and economic discrimination uniformly impacts affected communities. Explanations for the findings are provided in the context of an increasingly eclectic post-apartheid South African city.     

THE EMERGENCE OF AFFLUENCE IN BEIJING: RESIDENTIAL SOCIAL STRATIFICATION IN CHINA'S CAPITAL CITY

Since 1987, the Chinese government has begun to liberalize its approach to land markets, allowing for the development of commercial residential housing and sparking greater distinctions in housing quality. At the same time, there have been growing income differentials among Beijing's residents. This paper discusses how Beijing's new urban affluent have begun to take advantage of greater housing choices. It reports on a survey conducted in 1997 that uncovers the occupational characteristics, consumption patterns, housing characteristics, and residential locations of affluent residents. The results indicate that Beijing's new urban affluent are beginning to share some of the consumption features of middle-class Westerners. At the same time, social segregation is still nascent in Beijing. There is now only a sprinkling of affluent neighborhoods in the city, and a slight majority of wealthier respondents continue to live in public housing. Moreover, few are able to afford detached single-family housing or a private automobile. The continuation of current trends could both deepen and broaden social segregation in Beijing, as class divisions come to be manifested in separate neighborhoods. [Key words: socialist cities, affluence, Beijing, housing, social stratification.]     

西安市贫困空间结构特征与发生机理

以中国西部综合型大城市、老工业基地西安市为例,基于大规模调研数据,采用相对贫困概念和FGT指数研究城市内部微观单元贫困特征的空间分异与形成机理。结果表明,西安市整体的贫困状况较为缓和,贫困覆盖面广,但深度和强度较弱;随着城市圈层扩展,贫困属性呈现出“U”型演化曲线,表现出“高贫困、破碎、混杂—低贫困或非贫困、弱连续、较弱混杂—较低贫困、连续、内部分化、相对均一—较高贫困、相对连续、较强混杂”的演化规律,成熟建成区和新兴扩展区内侧分化区的贫困状况最弱;城市内部已基本发育成熟了旧城衰退型、发展剥夺型、传统工业衰退型、“城中村”型和新增长中心邻近型等5种表征不同贫困主体及户籍、住房等特征的贫困极核。西安城市贫困空间的结构特征是其社会经济发展的阶段性和区域性的集中体现,是在城市宏观社会经济和整体地域结构背景下,各收入阶层在生活成本、就业机会、公共资源、政策导向和社会心理亚文化圈等因素的作用下,通过接替、过滤、自主集聚、排斥隔离和强化等机制重塑城市社会空间的综合表现。     

Spatial Segregation of the Poor in Southern California: A Multidimensional Analysis

Poverty segregation increased in Southern California during the 1990s. A comparison of four indices reflecting various dimensions of segregation (e.g., evenness, concentration, isolation, and clustering) suggests that poor people are increasingly concentrated and isolated. However, cities within the region experienced different levels and types of segregation, with significant changes over time. Regression analysis using 1990 and 2000 census data highlights the role of demographic, economic, and fiscal variables in explaining the changing landscape of poverty. Whereas historically poor and older cities have seen a rise in poverty that translated into an increase in concentration and isolation, newer suburban communities have evolved differently. Cities where poverty has been high and increasing often maintained a high level of clustering and unevenness, but experienced higher levels of concentration and clustering in 2000. In contrast, wealthier cities typically faced a rise in unevenness and clustering as small pockets of poverty population emerged in the midst of high-income neighborhoods.     

Urban Underclass: The Wayward Travels of a Chaotic Concept

This commentary critically engages with arguments made by Loïc Wacquant in his book Urban Outcasts on the nature of public discourse regarding concentrated urban poverty in the United States. In particular, it elaborates a critical reading of the international circulation of social-scientific analyses of urban poverty—in particular the concept of the "urban underclass"—which rose to prominence through research on Chicago neighborhoods. This concept has subsequently influenced scholarly and public policy approaches to characterizing and combating entrenched urban poverty and long-term unemployment in Europe, Asia, and elsewhere. I challenge the appropriateness of the concept as well as the direction of public policymaking that has downplayed, if not ignored, questions of job availability and job quality in urban areas.     

Downgrading – An overlooked reality in African cities: Reflections from an indigenous neighborhood of Accra,Ghana

African cities contain a range of low-income ethnic and cultural enclaves that defy conventional ‘slum’ typecasts and intervention guidelines. Further, new forms of urbanization (e.g. gated communities and informal settlements) have received heavy emphasis in recent urban geographic research. Such research emphases have many unintended consequences; one of which is that traditional indigenous neighborhoods in the older city are glossed over. This paper focuses on urban downgrading in Korle Gonno, a prominent and established indigenous community in Accra, Ghana. Using mixed-method data (including surveys), the results illustrate that a traditional neighborhood encounters many of the same dimensions of urban poverty as the more famed slums in the city, yet it experiences different poverty trajectories. We argue that the prevailing slum profiling techniques fall short of capturing these trajectories; more nuanced approaches that capture continuity and discontinuity with past and present socioeconomic processes are necessary. Attention must be rebalanced toward understanding the deterioration of these neighborhoods if policymakers, planners and urban theorists are to obtain a comprehensive picture of poverty dynamics and appropriate interventions in African cities.     

Gentrification and the suburbanization of poverty: changing urban geographies through boom and bust periods

Many postindustrial cities across Europe and other contexts are marked by growing social–spatial inequalities, housing liberalization, and gentrification, which limit the housing options of low-income households. We investigated changes in the residential moves of different low-income households (working poor, low-to-middle income, and unemployed) in the Amsterdam and Rotterdam urban regions for the time period 2004–2013. We found an overarching trend for the suburbanization of poverty toward the urban peripheries and surrounding regions. While this trend appears to be relatively crisis resistant in the tight Amsterdam housing context, it is more cyclical in Rotterdam and has slowed following the global financial crisis. Low-to-middle income and unemployed households are increasingly moving to the urban regions surrounding cities, particularly to higher density satellite towns. Nevertheless, a growing number of working poor households remain highly urbanized, employing various coping strategies to acquire housing. This paper reveals how the suburbanization of poverty is both a direct process of poor households moving from city to suburb, and a broader indirect process caused by exclusionary mechanisms such as the decreasing accessibility and affordability of inner-urban neighborhoods, which reflect broader changes in the geography and socioeconomic patterning of urban regions.     

The relationship between transit rich neighborhoods and transit ridership: Evidence from the decentralization of poverty

The concept of transit-rich neighborhoods (TRNs) has become a focus of more interest as it relates to rapidly growing and congested communities, and it has received national attention because of its contribution to smart growth in the United States. Although most investment in transit services has been concentrated in denser central cities, where most transit users, including those of low income, reside, the trend toward the decentralization of poverty has become evident in many metropolitan areas and underscored the need to improve suburban transit services. Many studies pertaining to transit ridership have focused on the physical characteristics of stations, their catchment areas, and equity issues for low-income riders, particularly in central cities, without accounting for the evolving socioeconomic characteristics of the neighborhoods being served. To address this issue, this paper categorizes TRNs based on changing socioeconomic and spatial characteristics and uses multiple regression to examine the relationship between types of TRNs and transit ridership in the Atlanta metropolitan area, focusing on the decentralization of poverty. The results show that suburban TRNs became more diverse in terms of income and race between 2000 and 2009, which suggests that investment in commuter rail transit is an important contribution to social and economic equality at the regional level. Furthermore, poverty rates in suburban areas, compared to those in their downtown and inner-city counterpart TRNs, positively influence the percentage of transit ridership. The increased use of suburban transit services suggests the potential presence of increased latent demand, which is further supported by the decentralization of poverty.     

北京城市老年贫困人口识别与空间分布

随着中国老龄化程度加深和城镇化水平的提高,城市地区的老年贫困问题日渐突出。由于缺乏明确的界定和统一的标准,老年贫困人口识别的准确性不足,不同研究的结论存在很大分歧。特别是教育、健康、家庭和社会支持等因素与老年贫困的关联被忽视、贫困线的设定较为主观等问题,对厘定城市老年贫困的空间格局和制定相关政策造成很大困扰。本文通过北京市典型居住社区的实证研究对上述问题进行了探讨,首先基于老年人属性变量的因子分析构建了城市老年贫困的综合判别指标;然后通过贫困线的优化分析,估计不同类型居住社区的老年贫困比例;再以市域范围内的街道和中心城区周边的地区办事处为空间单元,对北京市城市老年贫困的空间格局进行了分析。研究结论为:① 资源、健康、独立性和性别是老年人属性差异的决定因子,其中资源因子得分综合反映了城市老年人的贫困程度。② 不同类型居住社区的城市老年贫困比例存在显著差异,根据居住社区的分布,测得北京城市老年人口的贫困比例为9.55%。③ 城市内部老年贫困的空间格局分析表明:城市老年贫困人口比例从首都功能核心区、城市功能拓展区、城乡结合部地区到外围城区顺次增加;城市老年贫困人口密度则以外围城区与首都功能核心区最高,城市功能拓展区居中,城乡结合部地区最低。这些结果为进一步制定不同地区的老年贫困对策提供了参考依据。     

Where immigrants live: capturing ethnic segregation at the local level in two Australian cities

Although the consequences of residential segregation are well documented, few studies to date have examined patterns of residential segregation at the local level in Australia. While available research indicates relatively low levels of residential segregation in Australia compared to other contexts, the traditional measures of segregation commonly utilised tend to be aspatial and global in nature and, as such, offer limited insight into local segregation trends. Considering these shortcomings, this paper employs two highly spatialised yet under-utilised local segregation measures—Location Quotients and Local Moran’s I. Using these measures, this paper explores how various immigrant groups are spatially distributed across two Australian cities with differing immigration histories—Sydney an established immigrant gateway and Brisbane a relatively new immigrant destination. Additionally, this article examines whether or not immigrant neighbourhoods in each city are co-located or isolated. Contrary to expectations that Australian neighbourhoods are multicultural, these findings demonstrate clear differences in the neighbourhoods where immigrant groups settle.     

RACIALIZED TOPOGRAPHIES: ALTITUDE AND RACE IN SOUTHERN CITIES*

ABSTRACT. This study examines altitudinal residential segregation by race in 146 cities in the U.S. South. It begins by embedding the topic in recent theorizations of the social construction of nature, the geography of race, and environmental justice. Second, it focuses on how housing markets, particularly in the South, tend to segregate minorities in low‐lying, flood‐prone, and amenity‐poor segments of urban areas. It tests empirically the hypothesis that blacks are disproportionately concentrated in lower‐altitude areas using gis to correlate race and elevation by digital elevation‐model block group within each city in 1990 and 2000. The statistical results confirm the suspected trend. A map of coefficients indicates strong positive associations in cities in the interior South‐where the hypothesis is confirmed‐and an inverse relationship near the coast, where whites dominate higher‐valued coastal properties. Selected city case studies demonstrate these relationships connecting the broad dynamics of racial segregation to the particularities of individual places.     

An unexpected geography of opportunity in the wake of the foreclosure crisis: low-income renters in investor-purchased foreclosures in Phoenix,Arizona

During the recent United States foreclosure crisis, investors purchased and leased thousands of homes nationwide, opening up formerly owner-occupied neighborhoods to renters. Yet, little is known about how this process affected regional patterns of residential segregation and inequality. In this study, we combine property-level data on real estate transactions and subsidized housing vouchers from 2004 to 2014 to assess whether the conversion of foreclosures to rentals enabled low-income renters to live in more advantaged neighborhoods in Phoenix, Arizona. Renters with vouchers living in investor-purchased foreclosures were in lower-poverty neighborhoods compared with those not living in investor-purchased foreclosures. This suggests that foreclosure sales may have widened the geography of opportunity for low-income renters with subsidized housing.     

SPATIAL VARIATIONS IN GROCERY PRICES: FURTHER ATTEMPTS AT MODELING

Significant housing discrimination against Blacks continues to exist in Metropolitan Miami, as it does in most other large United States cities. Blacks in Miami live in neighborhoods that are not nearly as segregated by socioeconomic status as are Hispanic and non-Hispanic White neighborhoods. This study uses data derived from interviews of 432 Black heads of households living in Miami neighborhoods that are at least 50% Black. Although most of the African Americans interviewed said they think their neighborhood is desirable and said they want to live where they do, it is clear that they are not living where they most prefer. They live in predominantly Black neighborhoods because they feel unwelcome in White neighborhoods and they fear housing discrimination in the latter. Among other problems, the continued residential concentration of Blacks in predominantly Black neighborhoods of mixed socioeconomic status in Miami results in a bidding up of the price of housing that is left for the less affluent Blacks.     

Latent sprawl,divided Mediterranean landscapes: urban growth,swimming pools,and the socio-spatial structure of Athens,Greece

Although Mediterranean cities have inherent differences on a local scale, together they offer a kaleidoscopic overview of distinctive morphologies and patterns of socio-spatial segregation. In this study, we explore the distribution of residential swimming pools as indicators of the use of land and water at the metropolitan scale, in relation to recent changes in the socio-spatial structure of a large Mediterranean city (Athens, Greece). Our results indicate a polarized spatial distribution of swimming pools, still considered a luxury affordable only for a minor segment of the Greek population. The analysis highlights the spatial linkages between concentration of residential pools, class segregation and low-density settlements, indicating that the socio-spatial structure of Athens remains characterized by persistent disparities between rich and poor neighborhoods. Comparison with another Mediterranean city (Barcelona) demonstrates the peculiarity of Athens’ recent development as reflected in the fragmented and polarized urban structure. The study provides an alternative reading of recent Mediterranean urban growth by considering pools as a “landmark” for urban sprawl, producing contested landscapes of localized social segregation.