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Changing Patterns of Residential Segregation in a Prismatic Metropolis: A Lacunarity-Based Study in Houston, 1980–2000

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  • Daniel Z Sui

    (Department of Geography, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3147, USA)

  • X Ben Wu

    (Department of Rangeland Ecology and Management, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-2126, USA)

Abstract

The role of race versus class in shaping residential segregation patterns has been a contentious issue in segregation studies for decades. Despite the voluminous, interdisciplinary literature, scholars have reported conflicting evidence on the role of race versus class in residential segregations. We attribute the current inconclusive literature partially to the failure to consider scale explicitly in residential segregation measures, and partially to the growing complexity of a multiethnic melting pot in most cities in the United States. Inspired by new metrics employed by landscape ecologists to measure landscape heterogeneity, residential segregation is reconceived as a scale-dependent social phenomenon in this paper. We also present an alternative to existing structural or spatial segregation measures, considered as less efficient because most of the existing indices measure only a few dimensions of segregation at a single scale. We have developed a multiscale, lacunarity-based segregation measure, and have used it to examine the role of race versus class in residential segregation patterns in Houston, Texas. Using census-tract-level data from 1980 to 2000, we found that race is still the most important factor in explaining residential segregation despite the overall decline of segregation by both income and race. It was also found that the changing segregation patterns over time are contingent upon the scale as well as the race or income group considered.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Z Sui & X Ben Wu, 2006. "Changing Patterns of Residential Segregation in a Prismatic Metropolis: A Lacunarity-Based Study in Houston, 1980–2000," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 33(4), pages 559-579, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirb:v:33:y:2006:i:4:p:559-579
    DOI: 10.1068/b31187
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    1. William Frey & Reynolds Farley, 1996. "Latino, Asian, and black segregation in U.S. metropolitan areas: Are multiethnic metros different," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 33(1), pages 35-50, February.
    2. Jackson, S.A. & Anderson, R.T. & Johnson, N.J. & Sorlie, P.D., 2000. "The relation of residential segregation to all-cause mortality: A study in black and white," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 90(4), pages 615-617.
    3. W. Clark, 1991. "Residential preferences and neighborhood racial segregation: A test of the schelling segregation model," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 28(1), pages 1-19, February.
    4. Collins, William J. & Margo, Robert A., 2000. "Residential segregation and socioeconomic outcomes: When did ghettos go bad?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 239-243, November.
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