Socio-spatial Disparities in Brussels and its Hinterland

Brussels’ urban and suburban landscape has changed considerably since the 1980s. The consolidation of socioeconomic fractures inside the city, a reinforcement of long-lasting disparities between the city and its prosperous hinterland, as well as the increasing diversification of migration flows—both high- and low-skilled—contributed to these disparities. Recent evolutions of these patterns, however, have not been investigated yet and therefore remain unknown. Besides, the extent to which segregation is primarily related to economic inequalities and to migration flows—or a combination/interaction between the two—so far has not been studied. This chapter offers a detailed overview of the socio-spatial disparities in the Brussels Functional Urban Area. Our analyses relied on fine-grained spatial data, at the level of statistical sections and of individualised neighbourhoods built around 100 m x 100 m grids. We analysed socioeconomic segregation measures and patterns, as well as their evolution between 2001 and 2011. Socioeconomic groups were defined based on individuals’ position with respect to national income deciles. In line with previous research, our results show very marked patterns of socioeconomic segregation in and around Brussels operating both at a larger regional scale and at the local level.

Segregation in London: A City of Choices or Structures?

This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of the socio-economic segregation in London. The cosmopolitan nature of the city means there is an interwoven complexity that prevents the separation of social, cultural and economic residential trajectories of the population. As a result, the chapter explores socio-economic segregation within the context of the changing nature of the (sub)urban contexts. In particular, the chapter documents not only the occupational segregation but also introduces the often-used dimension of ethnicity and pairs it with the less commonly explored age and tenure dimensions through which the social structure of the city is inscribed. This enables a broader understanding of the rapid changes that have been wrought on the micro-scale can be understood in the context of a city that has, in terms of the overall composition, changed little.

Income Inequality and Socioeconomic Segregation in Jakarta

Socioeconomic segregation has become a common phenomenon, both in the Global North and Global South, and highly relates to income inequality. The merging of these two notions affects the geography of residential areas which are based on the socio-occupational composition. This chapter focuses on the Jakarta Metropolitan Area (JMA). Not only is Jakarta the largest metropolitan area in Southeast Asia, it is also one of the most dynamic. Batavia, the colonial capital of the former Dutch East Indies in the first half of the twentieth century, was a small urban area of approximately 150,000 residents. In the second half of the century, Batavia became Jakarta, a megacity of 31 million people and the capital of independent Indonesia was beset with most of the same urban problems experienced in twenty-first-century Southeast Asia, including poverty, income inequality, and socioeconomic segregation. This study aims to identify the correlation among income inequality, socioeconomic segregation, and other institutional and contextual factors which caused residential segregation in JMA. The analysis consists of two stages. First, we examine income inequality measured by the Gini Index as well as the occupational structure based on the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO). Second, we investigate residential segregation by using the Dissimilarity Index as a result of socioeconomic intermixing in residential areas. The data in this study comes from multiple sources including Indonesia’s Central Bureau of Statistics, Indonesia’s National Socio-economic Survey (Susenas), Indonesia’s Economic Census, Jakarta’s Regional Bureau of Statistics, and policies related to the housing system and investment in the JMA. This study also produces maps of socioeconomic segregation patterns from several sources including Jakarta’s Geospatial Information Centre, Jakarta’s Spatial Plan Information System, and the Indonesian Poverty Map by the SMERU Research Institute.

Income Inequality and Socio-economic Segregation in the City of Johannesburg

This chapter analyses income inequality and socio-economic segregation in South Africa’s most populous city, Johannesburg. The end of apartheid’s segregation in 1991 has been followed by both continuity and change of urban spatial patterns. There is a considerable literature on the transformation of inner-city areas from white to black, and of the steady diffusion of black middle-class residents into once ‘white’ suburbs. There has been less analysis on the nature and pace of socio-economic mixing. Four key findings from this chapter are as follows. First, dissimilarity indices show that bottom occupation categories and the unemployed are highly segregated from top occupation categories, but that the degree of segregation has decreased slightly between the censuses of 2001 and 2011. Second, the data quantifies the way in which Johannesburg’s large population of unemployed people are more segregated from top occupations than any of the other employment categories, although unemployed people are less segregated from bottom occupations. Third, over the same period, residents employed in bottom occupations are less likely to be represented in affluent former white suburbs. This seemingly paradoxical finding is likely to have resulted from fewer affluent households accommodating their domestic workers on their properties. Fourth, although most post-apartheid public housing projects have not disrupted patterns of socio-economic segregation, some important exceptions do show the enormous capacity of public housing to transform the spatial structure of the city.

Increasing Inequality and the Changing Spatial Distribution of Income in Tel-Aviv

Despite its egalitarian past, in recent decades Israel followed the footsteps of the United States in terms of growing inequality levels and reduced welfare arrangements. It is assumed, therefore, to have followed similar trends of increasing residential segregation between income groups. This study focuses on the metropolitan area of Tel-Aviv, Israel’s financial and cultural centre and examines the change in the spatial distribution of income groups between the years 1995–2008. It identifies trends in segregation between top and bottom income earners, as well as those between other income groups, given corresponding trends in income inequality. In addition, it examines spatial patterns of affluence and poverty concentration and assesses the influence of concentrated disadvantage among specific income and religious groups on overall segregation trends.

Income Inequality and Segregation in the Paris Metro Area (1990–2015)

In the last decades, the Paris metro area has experienced important structural changes linked to rising income inequality and a rapidly growing immigrant population. Using census data from 1990, 1999 to 2015, this chapter explores these transformations and how they have shaped trends in residential segregation. We find that the occupational structure of the area shifted upwards in the recent decade with a substantial increase in the share of the top occupational groups. This trend, however, did not primarily concern the immigrant population, which nonetheless experienced a growth in the middle class. These trends were further accompanied by an increase in income inequality driven by rising wages among the top 1% earners. Despite these changes, dissimilarity indexes between socioeconomic groups and between natives and immigrants have remained quite stable over the period. However, interaction indexes suggest that neighbourhoods are becoming more homogenous over time, both in terms of socioeconomic and ethnic diversity. Finally, the findings shed light on the correlation between socioeconomic and immigrant segregation. Socioeconomic disadvantage and the presence of immigrants within neighbourhoods, especially of non-European origin, are tightly correlated, and that correlation became stronger over time.

Changes in Occupational Structure and Residential Segregation in Tokyo

Similar to other industrialized countries, Japan has experienced a growth in income inequality since the 1980s. Furthermore, in the past few decades, Tokyo has come to adopt a more liberalist position for not only welfare and housing policy of the state but also to urban policy. This chapter examines the changes in socio-spatial inequality in Tokyo from 2000 to 2015. During this period, segregation indices confirm some level of residential separation between the top and bottom occupational groups, and segregation is fairly stable over time. This suggests that certain factors counteract the increase of residential segregation. A comparison between the Tokyo Metropolitan Region and the core city reveals that the core city amplifies spatial inequality. In contrast to the limited change in the city-wide levels of segregation, the changes in the residential patterns show that people with high occupational status tend to concentrate around the main railway station in suburban areas in the region and inside the core city, especially adjacent to the central neighborhoods.

Changes in Spatial Inequality and Residential Segregation in Metropolitan Lima

Since the 2000s, Lima city shows important changes in its socio-spatial structure, decreasing the long-established opposition between the centre and the periphery, developing a more complex arrangement. Sustained national economic growth has allowed better socio-economic conditions in different areas of the city. However, high inequality still remains in the ways of production of urban space, which affects residential segregation. To identify possible changes in the segregation patterns of Metropolitan Lima, this study focuses on the spatial patterns of occupational groups, examining their causes and relation with income inequality. The analysis is based on the 1993 and 2007 census data, measuring residential segregation by the Dissimilarity Index, comparing with the Diversity Index. The results confirm trends towards increased segregation between occupational groups. Top occupational groups are concentrated in central areas, expanding into adjacent districts. Bottom occupational groups are over-represented in distant neighbourhoods. In-between, a new, more mixed, transitional zone has emerged in upgraded formerly low-income neighbourhoods. Areas of lower occupational diversity coincide with extreme income values, forming spaces of greater segregation. In the metropolitan centre–periphery pattern, the centre has expanded, while the periphery has been shifted to outer peripheral rings.

Growing Income Inequality and Socioeconomic Segregation in the Chicago Region

Income inequality in the United States has been growing since the 1980s and is particularly noticeable in large urban areas like the Chicago metro region. While not as high as New York or Los Angeles, the Gini Coefficient for the Chicago metro area (.48) was the same as the United States in 2015 but rising at a faster rate, suggesting it will surpass the US national level in 2020. This chapter examines the Chicago region’s growing income inequality since 1980 using US Census data collected in 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2015, focusing on where people live based on occupation as well as income. When mapped out, the data shows a city and region that is becoming more segregated by occupation and income as it becomes both richer and poorer. A result is a shrinking number of middle-class and mixed neighbourhoods. The resulting patterns of socioeconomic spatial segregation also align with patterns of racial/ethnic segregation attributed to historical housing development and market segmentation, as well as recent efforts to advance Chicago as a global city through tourism and real estate development.

Socioeconomic Residential Segregation and Income Inequality in Bogotá: An Analysis Based on Census Data of 2005

Residential segregation is both a cause and consequence of socioeconomic inequalities. Since the 1990s, segregation patterns in Latin American cities have changed significantly. This is related to major urban transformations caused by privatization policies related to urban development, commercialization, and real estate activity. The main purpose of this chapter is to study residential socioeconomic segregation in the city of Bogotá, Colombia in 2005, using educational attainment as an indicator of socioeconomic status while considering the drivers of segregation during the 1990s. We also introduce a brief analysis of the relationship between residential segregation and inequality based on a model that allows replicating the income distribution of the population using census variables. This chapter shows that residential segregation in Bogotá is related to per capita income inequality, however, segregation may be caused by the dynamics of land and housing markets rather than inequality.