LAUSR

Residential segregation is the state of spatial separation of groups of people, with the groups defined according to one or more dimensions, such as ethnicity, age, income or other social characteristics. A distinction is commonly made between ethnic segregation, the concentration of different ethnic groups, and socioeconomic segregation, separation of groups based on income, employment status or education level (Massey and Denton 1988). This definition implies a relationship between different geographical areas: there should be meaningful variation across neighbourhoods in the composition of their resident populations. Issues related to residential segregation frequently appear in political and public debate, as well as in academic debates within the social sciences. Academic interest and policy interest in segregation have been particularly strong in the USA, and since Wilson’s (1987) influential work on black ghettos in US metropolitan areas. These urban areas, Wilson argued, were gradually abandoned by middle-income groups, which