Moving On from Indices, Refocusing on Mix: On Measuring and Understanding Ethnic Patterns of Residential Segregation

In a recent special issue of JEMS, Peach challenged the authors' work on the measurement of ethnic segregation and the use of their proposed approach in studies of British cities. Peach argued for the continued deployment of single-number indices—especially those of unevenness (dissimilarity and segregation). This response highlights the major disadvantages of those and other indices, especially in the contemporary context where most members of ethnic minorities live in urban neighbourhoods with varying degrees of ethnic mix rather than in relatively exclusive areas where they are largely separated from the rest of the population. If mix is the dominant situation, methods are needed that identify rather than obscure it.