Segregation and Urban Form: Towards an Understanding of Dynamics Between Race, Population Movement, and the Built Environment of American Cities

There has been increased attention to urban form in the recent segregation literature, showing population density and changes in housing structure as having crucial influence on segregation patterns (Spielman and Harrison 2013; Rothwell and Massey 2010; Watson 2006). However, there has been little work examining areas with newly constructed housing, looking at what kinds of people move to these places, and the consequences of this movement for residential segregation across the built environment of the United States. This project addresses this gap, using 2000 and 2010 decennial Census data to isolate areas of population growth, and understand their racial compositions in context with urban form. Three theoretical perspectives on segregation are used to understand these dynamics with previous understandings of segregation dynamics: Spatial Assimilation, Place Stratification, and Group Threat. It is found that growing areas are generally less segregated than older comparable areas. The implications of the results are discussed, and future avenues of research into segregation and urban form are identified.