School segregation in contemporary cities: Socio-spatial dynamics, institutional context and urban outcomes

Abstract

Social and social-spatial inequality are on the rise in the Global North. This has resulted in increasing segmentation between population groups with different social and ethnic backgrounds, and in differentiated access to cultural and material assets. With these changes, the relation between segregation in the educational sphere and segregation in the residential sphere has become crucial for understanding social reproduction and intergenerational social mobility. However, knowledge about this relation is still limited. We argue that the institutional and spatial contexts are key dimensions to consider if we want to expand this knowledge. The institutional context regards the extent of public funding, the degree to which parental choice and/or geographical proximity drive school selection, the role and status of private schools and the religious and pedagogical pluralism of the educational system. The spatial context refers to the geographies of education: the ethnic and social composition of school populations and their reputations; the underlying levels and trends of residential segregation; and the spatial distribution of schools in urban space. In this introduction to the special issue we will address these interrelated dimensions, with reference to theoretical and empirical contributions from the existing body of literature; and with reference to the contributions in this special issue. School segregation emerges from the studies included in this special issue as a relevant issue, differently framed according to the institutional and spatial contexts. A comparative typology will be proposed to illustrate how school segregation is peculiarly shaped in different national and local contexts.

Student mobility and school segregation in an (un)controlled choice system: A counterfactual approach

“…Such a reform would ensure higher levels of proximity schooling, which would situate school segregation closer to residential segregation. Considering the relatively lower levels of residential segregation of southern European cities (Arbaci, 2019;Boterman et al, 2019) and the differences observed between residential and school segregation in our study, such a reform would most probably reduce spatial inequalities in education.…”

Urban segregation: contexts, domains, dimensions and approaches

“…These relative novelties open up, for example, the analysis of the relation between residential and school segregation. Recently, Boterman et al (2019) created an overview; they come to interesting conclusions about this relationship, for example that the relation between school segregation and residential segregation is not only strong, but also that the two aspects seem to reinforce one another. This has, unexpectedly, even been observed in 'extreme' contexts such as the Netherlands, in which residential segregation is firmly regulated and school choice is supposedly 'free'.…”

Multiple dimensions of residential segregation. The case of the metropolitan area of Amsterdam

“…Ultimately such policies would widen social gaps instead of diminishing them (Bridge, Butler, & Lees, 2011). Policies in the educational system promote inequality indirectly as well, both in the Netherlands and Europe (see a recent Urban Studies special issue on school segregation in contemporary cities (Boterman, Musterd, Pacchi, & Ranci, 2019)). Finally, structural path dependencies, such as the recent growth of larger citieslike Amsterdamhave a strong impact on spatial segregation patterns as well.…”