Physical segregation

Date and country of first publication

1952
United States

Definition

Physical segregation refers to the deliberate separation of individuals or groups based on physical characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, gender, or disability. This can take various forms, such as the separation of people into different residential areas, schools, public facilities like bathrooms or drinking fountains, or transportation systems.

Historically, physical segregation has been used as a means of maintaining social and economic inequality, with marginalized groups being excluded from mainstream society and denied equal access to resources and opportunities. Examples include the apartheid system in South Africa, where black and white South Africans were forcibly separated in all aspects of life, or the segregation of African Americans in the United States during the era of Jim Crow laws.

Physical segregation is generally seen as a violation of basic human rights and is widely condemned. Many countries have implemented laws and policies to promote integration and equal treatment of all citizens, regardless of their physical characteristics. However, in some cases, de facto segregation may still persist, particularly in areas with deep-rooted social or economic inequalities.

Related segregation forms

Physical segregation is frequently discussed in the literature with the following segregation forms:

spatial segregation, social segregation, urban segregation, residential segregation

This visualization is based on the study The Multidisciplinary Landscape of Segregation Research.

For the complete network of interrelated segregation forms, please refer to:

• First year of publication

• Louvain clusters

• Betweenness centrality

• Disciplines in which segregation forms first emerged (Scopus database).

Notes

At its current state, this definition has been generated by a Large Language Model (LLM) so far without review by an independent researcher or a member of the curating team of segregation experts that keep the Segregation Wiki online. While we strive for accuracy, we cannot guarantee its reliability, completeness and timeliness. Please use this content with caution and verify information as needed. Also, feel free to improve on the definition as you see fit, including the use of references and other informational resources. We value your input in enhancing the quality and accuracy of the definitions of segregation forms collectively offered in the Segregation Wiki ©.

Physical segregation appears in the following literature

Pieris R. (1952). Caste, ethos, and social equilibrium. Social Forces, 30(4), 409-415. https://doi.org/10.2307/2572341

Biderman A.D. (198). The Graph as a Victim of Adverse Discrimination and Segregation: Comment Occasioned by the First Issue of Information Design Journal. Information Design Journal, 1(4), 232-241. https://doi.org/10.1075/idj.1.4.03bid

Castro C.D.M. (1988). The soul of vocational schools: Training as a religious experience. International Review of Education, 34(2), 195-206. Kluwer Academic Publishers.https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01874545

Carlton-LaNey I. (2). Women and interracial cooperation in establishing the good samaritan hospital. Affilia - Journal of Women and Social Work, 15(1), 65-81. SAGE Publications Inc..https://doi.org/10.1177/08861090022093831

Evangelisti S. (2003). We do not have it, and we do not want it: Women, power, and convent reform in Florence. Sixteenth Century Journal, 34(3), 677-700. Sixteenth Century Journal Publishers, Inc.https://doi.org/10.2307/20061529

Vaughan L., Clark D.L.C., Sahbaz O., Haklay M. (2005). Space and exclusion: Does urban morphology play a part in social deprivation?. Area, 37(4), 402-412. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4762.2005.00651.x

Frosdick S. (2005). Pompey v Saints: A Case Study in Crowd Segregation. International Journal of Police Science and Management, 7(3), 149-159. SAGE Publications Ltd.https://doi.org/10.1350/ijps.2005.7.3.149

Pearce-Oroz G. (2005). Causes and consequences of rapid urban spatial segregation: The new towns of Tegucigalpa. Desegregating The City: Ghettos, Enclaves, and Inequality, 108-124. State University of New York Press.https://doi.org/

Pieris A. (2009). Hidden hands and divided landscapes: A penal history of singapore's plural society. Hidden Hands and Divided Landscapes: A Penal History of Singapore's Plural Society, 1-354. University of Hawai'i Press.https://doi.org/

Schwerter S. (2011). Fictionalizing division: The urban landscapes of Belfast, Beirut and Berlin. Irish Contemporary Landscapes in Literature and the Arts, 81-93. Palgrave Macmillan.https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230360297_7

Castro L., Echeverri A. (2011). Bogotá and Medellín: Architecture and politics. Architectural Design, 81(3), 96-103. https://doi.org/10.1002/ad.1246

Calame J., Charlesworth E. (2011). Divided cities: Belfast, Beirut, Jerusalem, Mostar, and Nicosia. Divided cities: Belfast, Beirut, Jerusalem, Mostar, and Nicosia, 1-261. University of Pennsylvania Press.https://doi.org/

Conlin J. (2012). Introduction. The Pleasure Garden: From Vauxhall to Coney Island, 9780812207323(), 1-28. University of Pennsylvania Press.https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812207323.1

Tidey S. (2012). A Divided Provincial Town: The Development from Ethnic to Class Segmentation in Kupang, West Timor. City and Society, 24(3), 302-320. https://doi.org/10.1111/ciso.12002

Gutman M. (2013). The physical spaces of childhood. The Routledge History of Childhood in the Western World, 249-266. Taylor and Francis.https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203075715-21

Mackie C. (2014). Social reform and segregation: Tenant housing in the Isle of lewis, 1795 1900. Vernacular Architecture, 45(1), 54-66. Maney Publishing.https://doi.org/10.1179/0305547714Z.00000000024

Sanderson P., Thomas P. (2014). Troubling identities: race, place and positionality among young people in two towns in Northern England. Journal of Youth Studies, 17(9), 1168-1186. Routledge.https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2014.901491

Peacock R. (2014). Institutional and structural victimisation: Apartheid South Africa. Towards a Victimology of State Crime, 212-224. Taylor and Francis.https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203083536-21

McAtackney L. (2015). Memorials and marching: Archaeological insights into segregation in contemporary Northern Ireland. Historical Archaeology, 49(3), 110-125. Society for Historical Archaeology.https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03376975

Nash J. (2015). Island placenaming and insular toponymies. Names, 63(3), 146-157. Maney Publishing.https://doi.org/10.1179/0027773815Z.000000000110

Waintrub N., Peña C., Niehaus M., Vega R., Galilea P. (2016). Understanding cyclist traffic behaviour: Contrasting cycle path designs in Santiago de Chile. Research in Transportation Economics, 59(), 228-235. JAI Press.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retrec.2016.07.020

Sarigiannidis A.G., Beniakar M.E., Kakosimos P.E., Kladas A.G., Papini L., Gerada C. (2016). Fault tolerant design of fractional slot winding permanent magnet aerospace actuator. IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification, 2(3), 380-390. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc..https://doi.org/10.1109/TTE.2016.2574947

Bowling B., Westenra S. (2017). Crimmigration. The Routledge Companion to Criminological Theory and Concepts, 253-257. Taylor and Francis.https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315744902-57

Fang X., Chen X., Jiang W., Yang K. (2018). Studies about characteristics of the mixed non motorized traffic flow in Shanghai of China. CICTP 2017: Transportation Reform and Change - Equity, Inclusiveness, Sharing, and Innovation - Proceedings of the 17th COTA International Conference of Transportation Professionals, 2018-January(), 2317-2329. American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784480915.244

Sykes K. (202). Rewriting the rules: Gender, bodies, and monastic legislation in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Journal of Medieval Monastic Studies, 9(), 107-131. Brepols Publishers.https://doi.org/10.1484/J.JMMS.5.120398

Nash J., Bakker P., Bøegh K.F., Daval-Markussen A., Haberland H., Kedwards D., Ladhams J., Levisen C., Markússon J.S., Robbe J., Willemsen J. (202). On languages on islands. Acta Linguistica Hafniensia, 52(1), 81-116. Routledge.https://doi.org/10.1080/03740463.2020.1736747

Bracey G.E., II, McIntosh D.F. (202). The Chronicle of the Resurrection Regalia: Or Why Every Black Hire Is the First. American Behavioral Scientist, 64(14), 1961-1974. SAGE Publications Inc..https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764220975087

Tirosh Y. (202). Diminishing constitutional law: The first three decades of women's exclusion adjudication in Israel. International Journal of Constitutional Law, 18(3), 821-846. Oxford University Press.https://doi.org/10.1093/icon/moaa062

Stédile J.A. (202). Dynamics of urban segregation Vila Leopoldina. From sesmarias to gated communities; [Dinâmicas da segregação urbana na Vila Leopoldina: das sesmarias aos condomínios fechados]; [Dinámicas de la segregación urbana en Vila Leopoldina: de sesmarias a condominios cerrados]. Revista de Gestao Ambiental e Sustentabilidade, 10(1), -. Universidade Nove de Julho-UNINOVE.https://doi.org/10.5585/geas.v10i1.18453

Zikrullah N.A., van der Meulen M.J.P., Skofteland G., Lundteigen M.A. (202). A comparison of hazardous scenarios in architectures with different integration types. Proceedings of the 30th European Safety and Reliability Conference and the 15th Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management Conference, 4001-4008. Research Publishing, Singapore.https://doi.org/10.3850/978-981-14-8593-0_3781-cd

Zikrullah N.A., van der Meulen M.J.P., Skofteland G., Lundteigen M.A. (202). A comparison of hazardous scenarios in architectures with different integration types. 30th European Safety and Reliability Conference, ESREL 2020 and 15th Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management Conference, PSAM 2020, 4001-4008. Research Publishing Services.https://doi.org/

Abarca A.L.F., Moraes L.M. (202). Political ecology in the study of urban segregation. A case study on the construction of walls on the outskirts of Lima, Peru; [A ecologia política no estudo da segregação urbana: um estudo de caso da estruturação de muros na periferia de Lima, Peru]; [La ecología política en el estudio de la segregación urbana. Estudio de caso de estructuración de muros en la periferia de Lima, Perú]. Revista de Gestao Ambiental e Sustentabilidade, 10(1), -. Universidade Nove de Julho-UNINOVE.https://doi.org/10.5585/geas.v10i1.18350

Zhang X., Zhao X., Dang J., Liu L. (2022). Physical segregation impedes psychological integration: scene inconsistency increases prejudice against minority groups. Current Psychology, 41(9), 5849-5858. Springer.https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-01085-5