Metropolitan areas have experienced an increase in neighborhood poverty over the last few decades. Two lines of explanation for such poverty growth focus on the role of economic transformations and increasing welfare dependency. This paper considers the argument that the growth of extreme poverty is related to a number of complex economic changes at the metropolitan level that have had variable impacts on the nature of poverty neighborhoods. Using 1970Using , 1980Using , and 1990 economic and population data for a sample of 205 metropolitan areas, I found that employment dynamics had significant effects on the growth of extreme poverty among African-Americans, whites, and Hispanics. My interpretations partially confirm Wilson's deindustrialization hypothesis, as metropolitan areas experiencing declining employment availability within the manufacturing/construction sector exhibited the greatest increase in extreme poverty during the 1970s, especially among African-Americans. However, the effect of deindustrialization on neighborhood poverty declined over time. During the 1980s poverty became more generally linked to changes within other economic sectors, notably retail. Moreover, in certain contexts, the public sector functions as an employment niche that limits poverty growth among minorities. My findings provide no support for the "conservative hypothesis" linking concentrated urban poverty to the availability of welfare benefits. Empirical analysis incorporates the concept of metropolitan contingency, or the notion that the impacts of economic change on poverty are significantly conditioned by the nature of metropolitan economic structure. for their constructive criticisms and suggestions on earlier drafts of this paper. I would also like to thank my wife, Ava Fujimoto-Strait, for her editorial and cartographic assistance. The comments of three anonymous reviewers are also greatly appreciated.
Changes in poverty concentration have been shown to result from intrametropolitan forces that redistribute population among neighborhoods and metropolitan-wide forces that alter the overall population composition of metropolitan areas. The author examines the degree to which these two forces affected levels of poverty concentration within the Atlanta, Georgia, metropolitan region from 1980 to 1990. Although redistributive forces functioned to increase poverty concentration, these forces were overwhelmed by the aggregate increase in the nonpoor over the time period. As a result, both the African-American and white poor were slightly less residentially exposed to poverty in 1990 than in 1980. However, the African-American poor were also less exposed to nonpoor African-Americans and whites. Evidence suggests that poor populations in Atlanta did make residential moves that would reduce their spatial isolation, but such moves were overwhelmed by the residential movement of the nonpoor.
Los paisajes residenciales a través del sur urbano han sido significativamente alterados en los últimos años por la creciente diversidad racial y étnica evidente en toda la región. Atlanta, Georgia representa una región urbana que recientemente ha sido identificada como una nueva puerta de entrada de inmigrantes, al haberse convertido en el hogar de una amplia gama de comunidades étnicas atraída al crecimiento y la diversificación del mercado de trabajo de esta área. Este estudio investiga el impacto que el incremento de diversidad ha tenido en los niveles de segregación residencial entre grupos raciales y/o étnicos en el núcleo de la región de Atlanta desde 1990 a 2010. El análisis empírico incluyó la medida de dos dimensiones de segregación evidente entre los blancos no hispanos, los afroamericanos, los hispanos y los asiáticos. Las medidas de segregación residencial se separaron para investigar los impactos relativos del cambio de composición en toda la región y del cambio redistributivo intra-urbano sobre la segregación entre los cuatro grupos. Durante las dos décadas, Atlanta exhibió muy modestas formas de integración residencial, sin embargo, en algunos contextos la región realmente se volvió más segregada en áreas residenciales. Los resultados sugieren que los blancos no hispanos, los asiáticos y los hispanos exhibieron cierto grado de auto-selectividad étnica (o racial) que sirvió para concentrar estos grupos en áreas residenciales, aunque estas fuerzas fueron parcialmente anuladas por otras que operaban a escala metropolitana y de vecindad. La evidencia además sugiere que las experiencias residenciales entre las minorías se vieron fuertemente impactadas por el comportamiento redistributivo de los blancos. Los resultados llevan a la conclusión de que Atlanta continua siendo una región urbana altamente segregada, aunque cada vez más diversa.
Over time, the urban poor in the United States have become spatially concentrated within extremely poor neighborhoods, and as a result increasingly isolated from the nonpoor. Two general forces that vary in scale have been shown to be responsible for this process. First, poverty concentration may arise simply from metropolitan-wide changes in the overall population of the poor and/or nonpoor, a collection of forces that I refer to here as compositional forces. Second, poverty concentration may also result from intrametropolitan forces that cause the poor and/or nonpoor to redistribute themselves within metropolitan areas. These latter forces are referred to here as redistributive forces. In this paper, I examine the degree to which these two separate forces have impacted the levels of poverty concentration among African Americans, Hispanics, and Whites within Miami, Florida, from 1980 to 1990. Both forces functioned to increase poverty concentration among all three groups, with compositional forces generally having the stronger effect. A racial/ethnic continuum exists in Miami, as poor African Americans were the most spatially isolated of all groups and were more significantly impacted by redistributive forces. Poor Whites were the least isolated, while poor Hispanics exhibited intermediate levels of spatial isolation and poverty exposure. Evidence suggests that the residential experiences of both poor African Americans and Hispanics were strongly influenced by the migratory behavior of the nonpoor in Miami.
The degrees to which poor populations are spatially concentrated within metropolitan areas are influenced by two sets of forces. In this article, I refer to the first set of forces as redistributive forces, which includes intrametropolitan forces that redistribute populations among different neighborhoods. The second set of forces includes metropolitan-wide processes that alter the relative poverty composition of the overall metropolitan population. These latter processes are referred to here as compositional forces. This research investigates the degrees to which these two sets of forces impacted poverty concentration among racial and ethnic groups within Los Angeles County, CA from 1990 to 2000. Both forces generally functioned to increase poverty concentration among all groups considered, with compositional forces having the stronger effect. Evidence suggests that the residential experiences of poor whites, African Americans, and Hispanics were strongly influenced by the migratory behavior of the nonpoor in Los Angeles. The Asian population, however, exhibited some evidence of ethnic (or racial) ''self-selectivity,'' as this population exhibited less interclass segregation over time. Despite increased poverty concentration, findings demonstrate that Los Angeles became slightly less segregated by race and ethnicity during the 1990s.Over time, researchers have expressed considerable interest in the residential environments of the urban poor in the United States. In recent decades, poorer urban populations have become increasingly concentrated within neighborhoods that are segregated from those inhabited by the nonpoor. This has been particularly true in the case of the minority poor. Concern for the consequences of this spatial arrangement has increased recently as a result of a growing literature focusing on ''neighborhood effects'' (Brewster
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