Spatializing Segregation Measures: An Approach To Better Depict Social Relationships

Masayoshi Oka
University of Alcalá

David W.S. Wong
University of Hong Kong
George Mason University

Segregation involves more than one population group, and segregation measures quantify how different population groups are distributed across space. One of the key conceptual and methodological foundations of segregation studies is to account for the potential of spatial interaction among two or more population groups across areal units. This foundation implies the need for a spatial approach to portray the spatial (and thus social) interaction among neighbors. In general, simple percentages (for example, percent Black) are not a measure of segregation. Because local spatial segregation measures did not emerge until recently, the objectives of this article are threefold: (1) to explain a spatial approach for measuring the level of segregation at the neighborhood (or local) level, (2) to demonstrate the deficiencies of using a percentage of racial/ethnic group as a measure of segregation, and (3) to clarify the appropriateness of two commonly used indexes of dissimilarity and diversity. Data from St. Louis, Missouri, and Chicago, Illinois, are used to discuss these three points.