TY - JOUR
T1 - Agents of Change
T2 - Mixed-Race Households and the Dynamics of Neighborhood Segregation in the United States
AU - Ellis, Mark
AU - Holloway, Steven R.
AU - Wright, Richard
AU - Fowler, Christopher S.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was made possible by grants from the National Science Foundation and the Russell Sage Foundation. Thanks to Rebecca Acosta, Angela An-drus, and Kevin McKinney at the California Census Research Data Center for assistance with the data. Warm thanks to Margaret East, who provided indispensible research support, and Serin Houston, who has been in on our conversations almost from the start. We are grateful to seminar participants at the University of St. Andrews, Dartmouth College, University of California Berkeley, and University of Connecticut for their insightful comments on earlier versions of this article; and to the anonymous referees at the Annals for their constructive suggestions on this article. This article reports the results of research and analysis undertaken while the authors were conducting research approved by the Center for Economic Studies at the U.S. Census Bureau. Any opinions and conclusions expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Census Bureau. All results have been reviewed to ensure that no confidential information is disclosed. Support for this research at the UCLA and Berkeley Research Data Centers from the National Science Foundation (ITR-0427889) is gratefully acknowledged. Additional support came from a Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development research infrastructure grant, 5R24HD042828, to the Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology at the University of Washington.
PY - 2012/5
Y1 - 2012/5
N2 - This article explores the effects of mixed-race household formation on trends in neighborhood-scale racial segregation. Census data show that these effects are nontrivial in relation to the magnitude of decadal changes in residential segregation. An agent-based model illustrates the potential long-run impacts of rising numbers of mixed-race households on measures of neighborhood-scale segregation. It reveals that high rates of mixed-race household formation will reduce residential segregation considerably. This occurs even when preferences for own-group neighbors are high enough to maintain racial separation in residential space in a Schelling-type model. We uncover a disturbing trend, however; levels of neighborhood-scale segregation of single-race households can remain persistently high even while a growing number of mixed-race households drives down the overall rate of residential segregation. Thus, the article's main conclusion is that parsing neighborhood segregation levels by household type-single versus mixed race-is essential to interpret correctly trends in the spatial separation of racial groups, especially when the fraction of households that are mixed race is dynamic. More broadly, the article illustrates the importance of household-scale processes for urban outcomes and joins debates in geography about interscalar relationships.
AB - This article explores the effects of mixed-race household formation on trends in neighborhood-scale racial segregation. Census data show that these effects are nontrivial in relation to the magnitude of decadal changes in residential segregation. An agent-based model illustrates the potential long-run impacts of rising numbers of mixed-race households on measures of neighborhood-scale segregation. It reveals that high rates of mixed-race household formation will reduce residential segregation considerably. This occurs even when preferences for own-group neighbors are high enough to maintain racial separation in residential space in a Schelling-type model. We uncover a disturbing trend, however; levels of neighborhood-scale segregation of single-race households can remain persistently high even while a growing number of mixed-race households drives down the overall rate of residential segregation. Thus, the article's main conclusion is that parsing neighborhood segregation levels by household type-single versus mixed race-is essential to interpret correctly trends in the spatial separation of racial groups, especially when the fraction of households that are mixed race is dynamic. More broadly, the article illustrates the importance of household-scale processes for urban outcomes and joins debates in geography about interscalar relationships.
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U2 - 10.1080/00045608.2011.627057
DO - 10.1080/00045608.2011.627057
M3 - Article
C2 - 25082984
AN - SCOPUS:84860149261
SN - 0004-5608
VL - 102
SP - 549
EP - 570
JO - Annals of the Association of American Geographers
JF - Annals of the Association of American Geographers
IS - 3
ER -