From the dark end of the street to the bright side of the road: Automated redistricting of areas using physical barriers as dividers of social space

Abstract

This study examines the properties of administrative areas compared to a new method of automated redistricting when measuring social differentiation and segregation. Using physical barriers, such as roads, railways, streams, areas of uninhabited nature, and the like as dividers of social space, this study explores alternative ways of thinking social belonging and social cohesion that are beyond standard measures of geography and utilize areas of smaller size and population count. The geographical data are linked to Danish register data of the total Danish population in 2015, N = 4,986,125 on key variables of income, months of completed education, and ethnicity. The overall findings in this study suggest that rethinking geography when localizing social enclaves and segregated communities yields better results than using the more illogical administrative areas. The visual inspection, entropy levels of homogeneity, and intraclass correlation suggest that smaller areas that are divided by physical objects serve as a better reservoir of social cohesion and therefore better measurement of social inequality.

The geography of gambling: A socio-spatial analysis of gambling machine location and area-level socio-economic status

“…To capture the local neighborhood effect, this study involved an automated redistricting based on an inductive, recursive algorithm to isolate smaller, socioeconomic clusters (Lund, 2018). While it is methodologically challenging to measure the ways individuals create and maintain social communities, the ways landscapes seem to facilitate this is not (Entwisle et al, 1997;Feld, 1981;Lund, 2018Lund, , 2019White et al, 2005).…”

“…To capture the local neighborhood effect, this study involved an automated redistricting based on an inductive, recursive algorithm to isolate smaller, socioeconomic clusters (Lund, 2018). While it is methodologically challenging to measure the ways individuals create and maintain social communities, the ways landscapes seem to facilitate this is not (Entwisle et al, 1997;Feld, 1981;Lund, 2018Lund, , 2019White et al, 2005). The shaping of cities, communities and housing follow principles of closeness and these entities are separated by way of physical barriers such roads, railways, rivers, lakes, forests or other objects that may not have been intended as separators but often act as ones (Feld, 1981;Lund, 2018).…”

“…While it is methodologically challenging to measure the ways individuals create and maintain social communities, the ways landscapes seem to facilitate this is not (Entwisle et al, 1997;Feld, 1981;Lund, 2018Lund, , 2019White et al, 2005). The shaping of cities, communities and housing follow principles of closeness and these entities are separated by way of physical barriers such roads, railways, rivers, lakes, forests or other objects that may not have been intended as separators but often act as ones (Feld, 1981;Lund, 2018). Using this logic, micro-areas were established by examining the ways individuals cluster in an already existing geography.…”

“…The main advantage of this method is that it yields the same result every time and that the areas are small in terms of geographical area and number of inhabitants (Lund, 2018). Furthermore, these areas capture socio-economic homogeneity at an exceptionally high level compared to other types of area segregators such as administrative ones (Lund, 2018(Lund, , 2019(Lund, , 2020.…”

Et ungdomsliv under pres? Når udskolingselever skal navigere i præstationer, køn og sociale medier

“…Til at indfange et deskriptivt overblik over skoledistrikternes socioøkonomiske landskab er der anvendt 'automated area redistricting' (Lund, 2018). Denne metode bygger på en sammenkørsel af registerdata om uddannelseslaengde, indkomst og bopael med geografiske data såsom veje, stier, vandløb og ubeboede naturområder.…”