Early analysis of Census 2010 data revealed slight declines in Black-White segregation across US metropolitan areas, with mixed results for Asian-White and Latino-White segregation (Frey, 2011; Logan and Stults, 2011). While illuminating, these analyses tell us little about place-level diversity and segregation at the local level, a topic that has gained considerable attention from social scientists and historians in the last ten years (Anacker, forthcoming; Nicolaides, 2002; Singer et al., 2008; Wiese, 2004). Metro-wide racial and ethnic segregation indices mask great variation among majority-minority, immigrant gateway, and homogenous white suburbs. Measures of class segregation across suburban space similarly collapse differences between affluent job centers and poorer communities. Using Decennial and ACS data, and building on past attempts at suburban typologization (Hanlon, 2009; Hayden, 2003; Mikelbank, 2004) and recent work by Lee, Iceland, and Sharp (2012), our analysis examines the advantages, disadvantages, and methodological challenges of integrating place-level typologies into the measurement of race and class segregation in the US.

References:

Anacker, K. (Ed.). (forthcoming). The New American Suburbs: Poverty, Race, and the Mortgage Crisis. Ashgate.

Frey, W. "Melting Pot Cities and Suburbs: Racial and Ethnic Change in Metro America in the 2000s." Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Report (May 2011).

Hanlon, B. (2009). “A Typology of Inner-Ring Suburbs: Class, Race, and Ethnicity in U. S. Suburbia.” City & Community, 8(3), 221–246.

Hayden, D. (2004). Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820-2000. New York: Vintage Books.

Lee, B., J. Iceland, and G. Sharp (2012), “Racial and Ethnic Diversity Goes Local: Charting Change in American Communities Over Three Decades.”  US2010 Project Report Series. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Logan, J. and B. Stults (2011). “The Persistence of Segregation in the Metropolis: New findings from the 2010 Census.” Census Brief prepared for Project US2010.

Mikelbank, B. (2004). “A Typology of U.S. Suburban Places.” Housing Policy Debate, 15(4): 935-964.

Nicolaides, B. (2002). My Blue Heaven: Life and Politics in the Working Class Suburbs of Los Angeles, 1920-1965. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Singer, A., S.W. Hardwick, C.B. Brettell (2008). Twenty-First-Century Gateways: Immigrant Incorporation in Suburban America. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.

Weise, A. (2004). Places of Their Own: African American Suburbanization in the Twentieth Century. Chicago: University of Chicago Press