Preliminary communication
Limitations of Conceptualizations of Residential Segregation: Return to Social Space?
Simona Kuti
orcid.org/0000-0003-0061-0856
; Institut za migracije i narodnosti, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Margareta Gregurović
; Institut za migracije i narodnosti, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Saša Božić
; Odjel za sociologiju, Sveučilište u Zadru, Zadar, Hrvatska
Abstract
Th is paper presents attempts to conceptualize and explain segregation and emphasizes the fact that general classifications and taxonomies cannot explain this phenomenon, and certainly cannot predict the concentration of populations and groups in analytically targeted physical spaces. Segregation of populations in different areas varies according to demographic characteristics of the segregated population
and the degree of concentration and mixing with other populations in a given physical space. Except in cases of complete segregation, such as ghettos, it is not possible to theoretically ascertain which level of concentration and separation from other populations unambiguously determines the phenomenon of segregation. Th is is why attempts to create a theory, based mostly on observation of concentration of similar populations and post hoc explanations, are very limited and their claims often cannot be applied to other, even similar cases. It seems that only theories of social spaces, especially consequent application of Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of social space and appropriated physical space, can provide explanatory power for the concepts of segregation and resolve them of superficiality of description and arbitrary classification.
Keywords
residential segregation; ethnic enclave; ghetto; social space; Bourdieu
Hrčak ID:
75364
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2011.
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