Racial/Ethnic Residential Sorting in Spatial Context: Testing the Explanatory Frameworks¹

There are four major explanatory frameworks on racial/ethnic segregation and its changes: Assimilation, Stratification, Resurgent Ethnicity, and Market-Led Pluralism. Previous efforts to evaluate the significance of each framework, mainly relying on cross-urban metrics, pay less attention to intraurban residential patterning even though each framework leads to a different expectation about it. In response, this paper examines the validity of each framework in terms of intraurban segregation and changes. Following Brown and Chung's (2006) suggestion, this investigation utilizes a set of local segregation measures—Location Quotient and Local Moran's I—that shows where segregation occurs within a city. They are applied to the Columbus, Ohio MSA for 1990 and 2000. The overall findings support Resurgent Ethnicity and Market-Led Pluralism as the most relevant of the four frameworks.