ZusammenfassungDer Beitrag befasst sich mit der u. a. von Andreas Reckwitz formulierten These, dass die deutsche Sozialstruktur zunehmend durch eine räumliche Polarisierung geprägt wird. Empirisch untersucht werden auf der Basis des Mikrozensus erstens Veränderungen der sozioökonomischen Zusammensetzung von Metropolen und kleinstädtischen/ländlichen Orten sowie zweitens Veränderungen der Wohnstandorte unterschiedlicher sozioökonomischer Klassen zwischen 1996 und 2018. Die These, dass die „neue“ postindustrielle Mittelklasse sich zunehmend in den Metropolen konzentriert, während die „alte“ Mittelklasse und prekäre Soziallagen immer mehr im kleinstädtischen und ländlichen Raum zurückbleiben, wird nicht bestätigt, jedoch zeigen sich teilweise zunehmende räumliche Disparitäten.
It is widely assumed that post-industrial societies are characterized not only by growing economic inequalities and social polarization but also by increasing spatial segregation. This paper does not address residential segregation (i.e., “intra-city” inequalities), but instead investigates how social classes are distributed over different settlement types and whether class differences in places of residence have increased between 1996 and 2018. Based on microcensus data and applying the ESeC class schema, we focus on the question of whether members of the “new middle class” are increasingly concentrated in post-industrial metropolises while members of the “old middle class” largely reside in peripheral towns and regions. The results do not support the assumption that spatial disparities between classes have systematically increased in Germany. However, opposing trends in the likelihood of residing in the most dynamic cluster of the German metropolises are observed for the youngest age group of the new middle class and the oldest age group of the old middle class.
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