Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
30
Segregation and discrimination
David Herbert
typically a social pattern of aggregate behaviour.
Again, the sets of attitudes tend to be transmitted
from one generation to another and are difficult
to dispel or even to modify. The effect of
discrimination may be to create or increase
inequalities between classes of persons and make
discrimination more frequent ( ibid. : 8).
Segregation is the more common theme in
social geography, probably because it has meaning
both as a process and as an outcome or condition.
To segregate is defined as 'isolating', 'putting apart
from the rest', 'the separation of one particular class
of people from another on grounds such as race.
Segregation has stronger behavioural imperatives
than discrimination; it is more an action or activity
that underpins the actuality of separate and different
geographical spaces. The main such space is
residential, but segregation also finds expression in
education with segregated schools and in the
workplace, reflecting real divisions within society.
Discrimination and segregation are common
processes that underpin most of society, but recent
geographies have tended to focus on the
exceptional rather than the broad bases, and one
aim in this discussion will be to maintain the kind
of balance that the theme deserves. The chapter
therefore begins with a summary of the proven
significance of discrimination and segregation in
the understanding of race and class and residential
areas. It will take the opportunity to examine the
value of new approaches, including those of
cultural geographies, to our understanding of these
well-studied schemes. Second, it will examine
school segregation, which has been a powerful
INTRODUCTION
Segregation and discrimination are key words in
the lexicon of social geography. Whereas
segregation is the more widely used word and
concept, it has integral links with the process of
discrimination and also with other key processes
such as assimilation and prejudice. Over the longer
history of social geography, studies have been
dominated by the influence of race and ethnicity,
but now include gender, sexuality, impairment and
age. Race has dominated, but one thesis is that race
and class are closely intertwined, and a key
function of discrimination and segregation is to
deny access to greater wealth and status. There are
de facto separate residential areas as the products of
discrimination and segregation. The ability of the
suburb to maintain and enhance its separateness
and distinctive character is as much a testimony to
the power of these processes as is the persistence
of the impoverished ghetto. In the social
geography of the city, this mosaic of residential
areas with its visible symbols of power and prestige
on the one hand and disadvantage and poverty, on
the other, offers evidence of discrimination and
segregation as key social, economic and political
processes.
Discrimination is defined variously as 'to set
up or observe a difference', 'to treat differentially',
especially on the grounds of sex, race or religion
and is a set of values from which actions may flow.
Banton (1994) argued that discrimination is an
individual action but that since members of the
same group are treated in similar ways, it is
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