Introduction-Further Innovations in Segregation and Neighborhood Change Research

This special issue is the second in a two-part series emphasizing recent innovations in the measurement and modeling of segregation and neighborhood change. The segregation/neighborhood change literature has blossomed over the past century from empirical descriptions of the social ecology of Chicago neighborhoods to intermetropolitan comparisons of segregation dynamics over time. During the last two decades, scholars have also begun to incorporate innovations from the field of spatial statistics into segregation metrics, a development that has substantially improved our understanding of the different spatial “dimensions” of segregation (Massey and Denton, 1988). Another important development since 1990 has been the enhanced interdisciplinary and geographic scope of segregation studies. From its early beginnings in the Chicago School of sociology, segregation is now being studied by scholars from a variety of disciplines, including geography, economics, education, and urban planning. Recent international comparisons have provided new insights on the role of globalization and national policies in shaping patterns of segregation and neighborhood change at both the neighborhood and metropolitan level. The three articles in this special issue elaborate on these themes, examining the influence of metropolitan land-use patterns on segregation, the contribution of mixed-race households to estimated levels of segregation, and the influence of spatio-perceptual mental models on segregated patterns of urban space utilization. 1 We are grateful to Bill Clark of UCLA, who encouraged us to launch this special-issue project after we organized two special sessions on segregation measurement at the Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting in 2006. Several articles accepted in this and a previous special issue of Urban Geography were originally presented as papers in the two special sessions on methodology; these articles have addressed the theory of segregation, segregation as a cause or outcome of other social processes, and related issues. 2