Resilience of racialized segregation is an ecological factor: Baltimore case study

Abstract

Segregation by racialized categories is common to cities across the world and its social effects are well studied. However, the environmental effects-the ecology of segregation-have received less attention. Racialized segregation persists through time and is associated with environmental hazards or lack of amenities. The environmental burdens of racial segregation are increasingly documented and this paper synthesizes the dynamics of segregation and the dynamics of ecological conditions associated with it. The 'adaptive cycle of resilience,' an important social-ecological theory, is applied and used to facilitate synthesis. The well-documented history of racial segregation in the US city of Baltimore, Maryland, is used to illustrate the systemic mechanisms that adapt segregation to changing social conditions, and hence maintain its ecological impacts. The adaptive cycle serves as a useful tool in evaluating and addressing the ecology of segregation and can thus advance urban ecology on a new horizon. PRACTICE RELEVANCEThe adaptive cycle of resilience demonstrates that persistent racial segregation in cities results from an intentional but flexible system that includes many seemingly banal practices. These include planning, zoning, patterns of investment, influence of the real estate industry, distribution of amenities and disamenities, and access to civic power and influence. The adaptive cycle shows that the persistence of segregation is not 'natural' or inevitable. Rather, segregation persists as a result of racialized policies and practices that exclude certain groups from civic goods and processes. Acknowledging that cycles of segregation have been, and are being, institutionally maintained identifies a system that may be disrupted by community action, policy adjustment, and planning practice.

The relational shift in urban ecology: From place and structures to multiple modes of coproduction for positive urban futures

“…That view may be useful in some idealized situations where path dependency or contingency in how current conditions have come to be can be ignored, but there are many “non-equilibrium” situations where past conditions are influential into the present or future. Historical contingency is crucial where large, long-lived organisms play a role in urban relationships—for example trees in urban ecosystems (Anderson et al 2023 ), or where the past policies such as segregation (Grove et al 2018 ; Pickett et al 2023 ), or highway routing (Reft et al 2023 ) have lasting social-ecological signatures. Contemporary associations between social and biophysical features of cities are not always adequate to understand the operative relationships.…”

“…This is in spite of discredited work by earlier generations of biologists that supported racism and eugenics, and were used to justify colonialism, displacement, genocide, and slavery (Baker 2021 ). Contemporary urban ecology has been employed to identify and help overcome some of the biotic legacies of past and ongoing social inequities (Grove et al 2018 ; Pickett et al 2023 ). It has clarified such things as the factors that have generated contrasts in access to green space, parks, and tree canopy cover, or the exposure to hazardous sites, or exposure to hazards triggered by atmospheric or hydrologic disturbances, or pandemics (Sharifi 2022 ).…”