Title: The micro-ecology of racial division: A neglected dimension … · 2015-09-08 · Title: The micro-ecology of racial division: A neglected dimension of segregation Principal

Title: The micro-ecology of racial division: A neglected dimension of segregation

Principal Investigator: Dr John Dixon

Introduction

Segregation is increasingly viewed as a divisive and destabilizing process by social scientists. Not only does the isolation of groups increase the likelihood that they will form negative attitudes and stereotypes of one another (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2000), but also it helps to maintain wider economic and political inequalities (Massey & Denton, 1993). In this context, the apparent persistence of high levels of segregation in many societies has become an object of increasing concern, generating a substantive research literature.

However valuable in its own right, this literature has two limitations of focus that the present research program attempted to address:

1. Although acknowledging that segregation operates at various scales (e.g. see Kirshenbaum, 1984), researchers have concentrated almost exclusively on processes located at a relatively macro-sociological level. They have investigated, for example, how racial divisions manifest at the level of large-scale institutions (e.g. in the horizontal and vertical stratification of occupations) or through the ‘uneven’ demography of entire towns and cities. Whatever the merits of this style of work, we believe that it is in danger of overlooking important facets of segregation and thereby fostering erroneous assumptions about the lived realities of racial integration and separation. Even if, for example, city-wide measures of distributive evenness (D) and exposure (P) indicate that levels of residential segregation are low, then this is no guarantee that the problem of segregation has been overcome. To the contrary, it is quite possible that boundary processes operating at more intimate scales and contexts may continue to limit the extent to which genuine integration occurs (i.e. as defined by the presence of meaningful interactions between members of different groups).

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REFERENCE No. RES-000-22-0396

2. Research on segregation has also been limited in the range and type of social contexts investigated. The majority of work has investigated relations that are located in institutional or parochial settings, contexts where racial boundaries are clearly demarcated and present comparatively stable and/or formal barriers to interaction. Accordingly, it has tended to neglect the complex network of informal relations that form the basis of civic society and that tend to unfold in so-called ‘everyday life spaces’ (Schnell & Yoav, 2001). Remarkably little work has been conducted, for example, on the nature and extent of racial isolation in ordinary public or leisure spaces such as bars, nightclubs, shops, beaches, parks, sports arenas, public transport, street corners, seating areas, and so on.

Departing from these features of previous work, the present research explored the idea that segregation can be fruitfully studied as a micro-ecological practice: a phenomenon sustained by boundary processes operating at an intimate scale and in spaces where social encounters tend to be informal and transient. Segregation, in this sense, is the emergent outcome of innumerable small acts of division that seem to occur ‘spontaneously’ and in absence of so-called ‘centralised management’ (Schelling, 1978). Viewed in isolation such acts may seem innocuous. Collectively, however, as we illustrate in this report, they may quietly reproduce systems of social isolation and division.

In light of the dearth of previous work on this form of segregation, the research discussed in this report was primarily methodological and descriptive in orientation (see Dixon, Tredoux & Clack, 2005 for further discussion of its conceptual and applied rationale). Methodologically, we attempted to devise, apply and evaluate a (relatively) novel set of procedures for studying micro-ecological processes of segregation. At the same time, as will become apparent, we also adapted and extended analytic techniques that have been employed by geographers and urban sociologists to study segregation at a broader scale, notably by borrowing from their sophisticated suite of segregation indices (Massey & Denton, 1988). Descriptively, our aim was simply to study the nature and extent of segregation across a series of everyday spaces, bringing into view relations and practices that have generally occurred ‘beneath’ the macro-sociological gaze of previous research.

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The changing landscapes of post-apartheid South African formed the context for a series of three studies1, which were conducted by the Principal Applicant in collaboration with Professor Colin Tredoux and a small team of casual research assistants (mainly postgraduate psychology students at the University of Cape Town). The first study investigated relations in a public seating area of the University of Cape Town; the second study investigated relations in the playground of a multiracial school in Johannesburg; and the third, and most substantial, study investigated relations in the night time economy of Long Street in Cape Town’s city centre.

1. Sitting together apart: The spatial and temporal (re)production of segregation in a public seating area

Study 1 used a digital photography technique to investigate relations in a public seating area (Jammie Steps) at the University of Cape Town (see Figure 1 below). The details of this procedure and a full analysis of the results of the study are provided by Tredoux, Dixon, Underwood, Nunez and Finchilescu (2005) in an article submitted as one of our two nominated outputs. In addition, with the kind assistance of David Nunez (University of Cape Town), we have produced bespoke software packages for processing the digital images and for coding data in a form that permits analysis of segregation. Details on these programs and their associated manuals have been submitted to ‘Society Today’. In due course, they will be made available as freeware on a website designed to showcase the project. We shall concentrate here on the broader rationale for adopting this methodological approach and on summarizing its strengths and limits as a methodology for studying racial contact and segregation.

The majority of existing work on segregation has relied on some form of census data - usually gathered at single point in time -- that describes the proportional distribution of members of different racial population groups within and across different areas of a defined space (e.g. residential tracts in a city). The first methodological problem facing researchers wishing to study micro-ecological relations in everyday spaces is that such census data are not readily available and are difficult to reconstruct using standard census techniques. A second problem is that such relations tend to be highly fluid, messy and difficult to ‘pin down’, with people constantly entering, appropriating, moving through, and leaving a defined area. How, then, do we

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investigate patterns of segregation and integration in this kind of dynamic social space?

The first approach we tried took advantage of digital photography technology in order to make a time-series record (n=300) of the socio-spatial organization of a multiracial seating area (see Figure 1 below). As detailed by Tredoux et al. (2005), this methodology yielded a reliable index of racialised patterns of occupation and interaction over time within a public seating area. Notably, we found that members of different groups ‘preferred’ to sit different regions of the steps, that this pattern recurred across different observation periods, and that it tended to be associated with local population density on the steps (i.e. segregation was higher under conditions of lower density).

Figure 1 The observational situation and camera set up, Jameson steps, UCT

Evaluation of photographic methodology

Aside from capturing a permanent and accurate visual image of the socio-spatial arrangement of relations at a given instant, an advantage of this approach is that permits an exploration of the dynamics of segregation, a feature often hidden by the largely synchronic methods that dominate the field. We found that one frame

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produced every 30 seconds was sufficient to generate a fine-grained record of patterns of stasis and change on the steps, opening up the possibility of process analysis at a both molecular and a molar level. The practical disadvantages of this approach are twofold, however. First, while gathering data is relatively efficient, the subsequent coding of data (e.g. marking the race and gender membership of those photographed) for analysis is time-consuming, even when using the bespoke software we developed to make this task easier. Second, while permissible in certain kinds of public and private spaces, the use of photographic technology is unethical and disruptive in many settings. For this reason, it was not possible to use this methodology either in our subsequent study of relations in Long Street’s bars and nightclubs or in the school playground that featured in study 2.

2. Playing together apart: Mapping segregation in a mixed race playground

Our second study examined relations in the playground of a high school in Johannesburg in Gauteng province (which, for ethical reasons, will remain anonymous). The school in question has a history of encouraging racial diversity and integration that predates South Africa’s shift towards democratic government in the early 1990s. When our research was conducted in 2004, the school’s population consisted mostly of an approximately 50/50 mix of black and white children, with small numbers of Chinese, Coloured and Muslim students also attending. Ages ranged from 11 to 18 years.

The playground was chosen as a site for studying patterns of micro-ecological contact and segregation for two reasons. First, it is a space of relatively free, causal and spontaneous interaction and thus fitted the broader agenda of our research to explore relations that are not ‘centrally managed’. Second, it is a space that some previous research has found to be characterized by patterns of ‘preferential segregation’ (c.f. Schofield, 1986), which emerge as children move from the more institutionally regulated domain of the classroom into spaces of less controlled interaction.

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Figure 2 Map of the playground indicating subdivision into sections

Method

Study 2 employed a mapping methodology that operated as follows:

1. First, as Figure 2 above illustrates, a two-dimensional line map of the playground was constructed. This map indicated major landmarks (e.g. the Tuck Shop) and was sub-divided into a three spatially and socially demarcated regions. Section B, for example, designated a seating area within benches and tables, while Section C consisted of a Swimming pool area with surrounding spectator stands.

2. Using this map as tool, a trained observer then coded systematically, section by section, the geographic location, gender and race of all school children present during a given time interval (see Figure 2). Race and gender were symbolized on maps using a simple lettering system (e.g. WF = white female, BM = black male and so on). In addition, if children formed a clear

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interactional unit (i.e. they were standing ‘together’ or talking to one another), then this indicated by drawing a circle around all members of the unit.

3. A series of 50 such maps were drawn, with five maps being produced during each the school’s two daily lunchtime recesses for a period of one week. Overall, the maps recorded the standing or seating positions of some 3404 children, who formed a total of 971 interactional groups.

4. These data were analysed using statistical indices adapted from the wider literature on segregation. Indices of Dissimilarity or ‘D’ indices were used to measure the distributive evenness of the distribution by race across the different sections of the playground, a property widely regarded as central to understanding segregation (Massey & Denton, 1988). Indices of Exposure or ‘P’ indices were used to measure the potential for cross-racial interaction more directly, focusing on relations within the smaller scale ‘interactional units’ that the children formed during their lunch breaks (see also McAuley et al., 2001). In both instances, our analysis focused on the relations between white and black children, by far the numerically dominant groups in the playground.

5. As well as using D and P as descriptive statistics, we also used them inferentially, i.e. to test the null hypothesis that observed patterns were the result of random distribution by race across different areas of the playground or across interactional units. In order to facilitate this process, we designed a bespoke software package called SegStat. This imports data in a standard format from an excel spreadsheet, calculates observed P and D indices, and then tests these indices for significance using Monte Carlo simulation techniques. In effect, in our research, these simulations were used to ‘bootstrap’ sampling distributions for P and D for each map and thus to facilitate statistical inference about processes of exposure (within interactional units) and unevenness (across sections of the playground).

Results The results of the study were clear cut. There was little evidence of segregation across the different sections of the playground as a whole. At this level of analysis, D indices varied between 0.09 and 0.67, with a fairly low average index of 0.31. In only one instance was the observed D value higher than one might expect under conditions of ‘random’ distribution across the sections of the playground, as determined by our

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Monte Carlo simulations. (Note that for D indices higher scores indicate higher levels of segregation). Thus, we can conclude that the broader territorial arrangement of relations in the playground shows little sign of racial differentiation.

At the micro-level of interactional units, however, the picture was very different. At this level of analysis, P values revealed consistently high levels of segregation. (Note that for P indices lower scores indicate higher levels of segregation.) Measures of white children’s exposure to black children varied between 0.03 and 0.39, with an average of 0.14. In 49 out of the 50 observational intervals, the pattern of exposure was lower than one would expect under conditions of random mixing. Correspondingly, the P measures of black children’s exposure to interaction with white children varied between 0.01 and 0.17, with an average score of only 0.08. Once again, in 49 out of 50 cases these values indicated levels of mixing lower than one would expect under conditions of random distribution across interactional units. In short, analysis of the composition of intimate spatial units in the playground (e.g. groups of children standing together talking, sitting together in the spectator stands or eating lunch together at the communal seating areas) evidences a strong and consistent pattern of segregation.

Evaluation of mapping methodology and analysis

In our view, the mapping technique offers a flexible and straightforward set of protocols for gathering data on aspects of the micro-ecology of segregation in public spaces. It is simple to use and avoids some of the ethical problems that a photographic technique entails (e.g. unlike photography, mapping does not, as a rule, capture information that identifies an individual). It also seems to be a reliable procedure. Although for practical reasons it was not possible to collect reliability data during the playground study – we only had one researcher ‘on site’ -- comparable data was collected as part of some pilot work completed in the UK (conducted in a university cafeteria). This suggested that coding for race, gender and membership of an interactional unit could be done with a high degree of consistency (see Clack, Dixon & Tredoux, 2005 for details). Finally, unlike some other kinds of observational coding schedules, the mapping method retains potentially instructive information about the socio-spatial organization of relations in a given space. For example, inspecting our sample of maps led us to hypothesise that there may be greater levels of racial mingling in instrumental social spaces in the playground (e.g. children

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cueing together to buy food at the Tuck Shop) than there is in more intimate social spaces (e.g. children sharing a bench).

The mapping methodology also has limitations. The physical locations of individuals coded are estimates rather than exact measures and must be treated as such; thus, for example, segregation indices based around actual physical coordinates or distances cannot be meaningfully calculated. Moreover, in our study, each map took around 10 minutes to complete. Often, by the time our researcher coded children later in a observation sequence some of those she had coded earlier had moved elsewhere or even left the playground altogether! The maps are therefore more akin to slow exposures than to the precise snapshots permitted by the digital photography technique. Certainly, we would be cautious about attempting a molecular analysis of processes of stability or transition based on the maps alone, though some broader patterns might be fruitfully identified.

Finally, we would like to recommend the SegStat program as a helpful tool to other researchers. It is flexible in that it can be adapted to suit a variety of kinds of social space (or even to allow calculation of indices based on different forms of sub-division of the same social space). It also permits the inferential testing of segregation indices based on an observed sample of relations within a space, using a straightforward extrapolation of Monte Carlo simulation techniques (see also Dixon & Durrheim, 2003). As a product of our research, we plan to make this program and its associated manual available for general use.

3. Relations in Long Street’s Night-time Economy

In the rest of this report, we shall concentrate on the final and most substantial of our three studies, which investigated relations in Long Street in Cape Town’s city centre. In many ways, the Long Street project is the most interesting of our studies from an empirical perspective. It focuses on a form of social segregation for which there exists very little data, namely the segregation of the leisure spaces that constitute the night time economy of towns and cities. Who frequents the network of bars, clubs, cafés and eateries that define this economy? Who do they come into contact with, how, and where? Who are they isolated from and what contributes to this isolation?

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Our final study broached some, though by no means all, of these issues. Note that we are currently developing the Long Street research beyond the remit of the present ESRC funded research.

Research context Some background to the project may be helpful. Long Street, one of the city’s oldest and most historic streets, runs for almost a mile through the heart of Cape Town. It has long had the reputation for being a liberal, heterogeneous and ‘mixed’ space that has somehow eluded the austere racial logic of apartheid. In practice, of course, this reputation is not fully deserved. Long Street did not avoid South Africa’s history of racial exclusion, and the economic and social character of the street has been dominated to a large degree by whites businesses, activities and patterns of patronage. Following the enforcement of the Group Areas Act in the early 1960s, black people lost the legal right to live on the street (or even to be present there after 6pm). Similarly, for much of the apartheid era, so-called ‘Coloured’ people could not in principle reside on Long Street or attend the same cinemas, bars and restaurants as whites. Even so, the street managed to retain a reputation as a kind of ‘grey zone’, a place where the normal rules of apartheid could be flouted. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that in the post-apartheid era Long Street has come to epitomize ethnic and racial ‘diversity’. In particular, its burgeoning night life is viewed as a bohemian melting pot for a wide and often contradictory mixture of people, cultures, activities and tastes: a site, par excellence, of contact and integration in the new South Africa.

Methodology Our research explored this idea empirically by investigating patterns of integration and segregation in the network of clubs and pubs that make up Long Street’s night time economy. The research consisted of two phases, each examining socio-spatial relations unfolding at a different level of analysis. For reasons of space, we shall simply signal some of the key findings in this report; note, however, that we are now preparing a more detailed report for submission to the journal Social Forces.

Phase 1: Macro-level patterns of patronage Figure 3 below illustrates the eight establishments that were investigated during phase 1 of the Long Street study, which consisted of a census of macro-level patterns of patronage of a number of establishments, most of which were located in the Upper

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Long Street area. Two research assistants (postgraduate students at the University of Cape Town) conducted 144 observational counts of patrons in our selected establishments over a period of 18 days. All people present in a particular nightclub were coded for their race, sex and approximate age, and the total for each category was then computed. The conduct of the observational counts was stratified according to time of the evening (20h00 – 21h00; 22h00 – 23h00; and 24h00 – 01h00), and weeknight/week-end night (Monday to Thursday; Friday to Sunday). The order in which the clubs were observed in any particular time period was determined through a randomization schedule. Overall, the geographic location and category membership of some 3271 patrons were coded.

Figure 3 Aerial photograph of Long Street, indicating the locations of bars and clubs that featured during phase 1 of the study

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Results of Phase 1 Some of the results of this phase of the study are reported in Table 1, which gives the frequency distribution over the nightclubs of race.

Table 1 Distribution by race across venue

Sum of Total Race

Venue B C W Grand Total

BOB'S COOL R. JOBURG KENNEDY'S L.ST.CAFÉ MARVEL P.TURTLE STONES

165 (47%) 60 (16%)

137 (18%) 58 (23%) 39 (10%) 75 (19%)

9 (4%) 44 (8%)

89 (26%) 47 (12%)

114 (15%) 37 (15%) 42 (11%) 57 (14%) 68 (30%)

146 (28%)

92 (26%) 272 (71%) 469 (63%) 138 (55%) 307 (79%) 258 (65%) 152 (66%) 305 (58%)

349 383 745 250 391 396 230 527

Grand Total 587 (18%) 600 (18%) 1993 (61%) 3271

Note: B = black patron; W = white patron; C = Coloured patron

A Chi square test of independence showed an association between Venue and Race

(F2 = 411.28, df = 14, p < .001). Tests of residuals suggest that there are many deviations in the table from the model of independence. Highlighted entries are cells where adjusted standardized residuals were significant at p < .0001. The pattern of residuals suggests an over-representation of Black patrons in Bob’s Bistro, and an under-representation of Black people in three of the other clubs in the list. Similarly, Coloured patrons appear to be under-represented in Long St Café, but overrepresented in Purple Turtle and Stones. White people appear under-represented in Bob’s Bistro, and over-represented in Long St Café. The contingency table analysis presented above thus suggests significant differences in racial distribution across clubs, supporting the idea that there is a form of segregation at this macro-level of analysis. (This claim is based on the assumption, widely espoused in the segregation literature, that unevenness of racial distribution is an important index of segregation.)

By the same token, one must bear in mind that all of our sampled venues feature relatively large numbers of patrons of all race groups. They are multiracial spaces in

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way that would not have been possible during the apartheid years when, for example, few or no black patrons would have been present in Long Street’s night time economy.

Phase 2 The racial organization of seating in bars

The second phase of the study investigated micro-ecological patterns of seating in two of Long Street’s most popular bars, namely Cool Runnings (a Rastafarian theme pub) and Jo’burgs (which takes its name and aspects of its interior design from the South African city of Johannesburg).

Figure 4 Map of the interior and seating area of Jo’burgs, Long Street

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Observations were gathered by a team of two research assistants over a 12 day period using a mapping methodology similar to that used in study 2 described above (see Figure 4 below). During this period, a series of 22 maps were constructed in each club. Maps were drawn at three different times (20h00, 22h00, and 24h00) and on both weekend and weekday evenings. Again, the order in which the observations were collected, across clubs, was randomized.

Table 2 reports some illustrative descriptive data for two clubs that featured in phase 2, focusing on the frequency with which tables were integrated or segregated with respect to race over time. Although this seems to evince high levels of segregation (with an average of over 70% of tables containing members of one race group only), one must bear in mind that expected levels of racial exposure at a table level is contingent upon factors such as the overall relative proportion of members of different groups in an establishment at a given point in time. Table 3 thus reports the results of analysis of the table level data of one of the clubs using a segregation index that featured in study 2, namely the interaction index, xPy. In order to calculate xPy, a comparison group has to be declared and, for simplicity, we have reported here the indices for black and white patrons relative to ‘all other groups’ present in a bar during a given observation interval. In conducting this form of analysis, we again used the SegStat program to do Monte Carlo simulations, which permitted inferential testing of observed patterns of table occupancy.

As Table 3 reveals, this analysis provided a somewhat more sanguine picture of the degree of segregation at the table level than the raw descriptive statistics implied. It suggested that in about 31% (5 out of 16) of the intervals in which P indices could be calculated, white patrons’ level of exposure to members of ‘any other race group’ was lower than one might expect under conditions of random distribution across tables. This pattern was more moderate for black patrons. In only 12% (2 out of 17) of the observation intervals for which P indices could be calculated was black patrons’ levels of exposure lower than chance levels. Thus, one might conclude that segregation does occur at the table level, but that it occurs inconsistently. Certainly, during the majority of situations that we observed, racial exposure was not systematically lower than chance (which does not, of course, mean that high levels of racial mixing are occurring).

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Table 2 Frequency of segregated tables over time and venue

Club : JoBurg Club: Cool Runnings Time slot Total number

of tables occupied

Number of segregated1

tables

Total number of table occupied

Number of segregated tables

20h00 57 47 (82%) 46 38 (83%) 22h00 45 30 (67%) 30 20 (67%) 24h00 55 38 (69%) 35 21 (60%)

1 ‘Segregated’ here means that all members of a table were of the same race

Table 3 Segregation the table level in Jo’burg: Indices measuring White patrons exposure to ‘all other groups’ and black patrons exposure to ‘all other groups’

White patrons Black patrons Obs.

number xPy prob. xPy Prob.

1 .26 .1 .18 .33 2 .17 .11 .07 .21 3 .3 .23 .06 .11 4 .17 .03 .04 .85 5 .85 - .07 -6 .53 .81 .09 .71 7 .33 .3 0 -8 0 - 0 -9 0 - 0 -10 0 - 0 -11 .14 .01 .11 .01 12 .11 .02 .12 .05 13 .06 .01 .2 0 14 0 - 0 -15 .47 .83 .1 1 16 .06 .01 .14 .19 17 .31 .35 .07 .9 18 .45 .77 0 -19 .55 .57 .08 .97 20 .43 .6 .2 .91 21 0 - 0 -22 .47 .32 .08 .25

Note: Some of the indices here were too high or low for the empirical probability to be estimated meaningfully using a monte carlo simulation (e.g. sometimes no or almost no members of another group were present). These are omitted in the table above.

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Conclusions and future directions

The present exploratory research was based around the assumption that the study of segregation might benefit from a finer-grained analysis of social practices operating ‘beneath’ the level of the residential zone, the school district, or the occupational stratum. In our view, this analytic shift is particularly important if one wants to understand how processes of segregation actually shape interactions in everyday life (as opposed to shaping merely the potential for sharing a larger spatial tract with others). We elaborate some of the applied and conceptual implications of this idea in the second of our submitted products, an article that formed the introduction to a recent special issue of the South African Journal of Psychology on ‘Patterns of contact and isolation in everyday life’ (Dixon, Tredoux & Clack, 2005). The present report has concentrated on the basic methodological and descriptive features of our work in the hope of encouraging further research on the micro-ecological aspects of segregation.

Although it is little more than a starting point, in our view the key contributions of this work are as follows:

Issues of temporal and spatial scaling in segregation research: As we have emphasized, most work on segregation focuses on how it operates at a macro-spatial level and tends rely either on synchronic methods or on methods in which data is gathered at fairly large time intervals (e.g. annual segregation indices are computed for many cities in the USA). We would advocate a new line of research focused the dynamic reproduction of segregation at on micro-ecological level. Although this research will certainly benefit from existing methodologies in the field, we believe that it will also require methodological innovation. We offer our photographic and mapping protocols, and their associated software analysis packages, as examples of the latter. We also note, with interest, how the ‘scaling’ of segregation is the subject of emerging interest in sociology and geography (see Reardon et al., 2006), opening up a topic to which we hope to contribute.

Segregation within everyday life spaces: Most work on segregation is rooted in formal institutions of housing, occupation and education. Limited research has been conducted in everyday spaces of leisure and public life where relations are arguably less subject to economic, parochial, institutional or political control. The Long Street

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study exemplifies this kind of research context. We are currently developing our analysis of this data set, which is far richer than this brief report is able to convey.

From a social psychological perspective, of course, there is a glaring gap in all of the research that we have conducted -- our observational methods have not accessed members’ subjective experiences of sharing a multiracial space or of boundary processes within such as space. As such, they have revealed comparatively little about the psychological experience and determination of patterns of segregation and integration in South Africa. This is a gap that we want to rectify in the next stage of our research, which will involve, among other things, interviewing the patrons of the bars and clubs in Long Street who were observed during the course of this ESRC-funded study.

Notes 1. These studies depart somewhat from the empirical program anticipated in our original research proposal in which we planned to focus our data collection in sites located mainly at the University of Cape Town (Jameson steps, the Student Dining Halls and the Sports Centre). As it turned out, only the Jameson Steps study was conducted. There are three reasons for this change of emphasis. First, we unexpectedly gained access to a school in Johannesburg and thus took the opportunity to extend our work to a non-university context (a school playground) and sample (high school students). Second, the Sports Centre study proved to be a less productive context than we originally expected. Ironically, on many days, there were too few white spectators watching the indoor football competition to make the study of contact and segregation in the Centre’s Sports Stands a meaningful exercise. Third, the Night Clubs study was conducted on a much larger scale than originally anticipated in our proposal, which described a small scale observational exercise in a single club. As it turned out, we examined relations in two clubs over time and also did a census of broader patterns of patronage across several other clubs located in upper Long Street in Cape Town City Centre. Overall, we feel that the empirical contribution of our research as been greatly enhanced by these extensions.

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Activities, outputs and impacts

To date, the project has produced two research articles, which were published as part of special issue of the South African Journal of Psychology on ‘Patterns of racial contact and isolation in everyday life’ (which was co-edited by the Principal Applicant):

Dixon, J.A., Tredoux, C. & Clack, B. (2005). On the micro-ecology of racial division: A neglected dimension of segregation. South African Journal of Psychology, 35, 395411.

Tredoux, C., Dixon, J, Underwood, S., Nunez, D., & Finchilescu, G., (2005). Methods for the naturalistic study of contact and segregation in informal social spaces. South African Journal of Psychology, 35, 412-432.

A third article is nearing completion and will be submitted to the journal Social Forces.

It is entitled: ‘Mapping the multiple contexts of racial isolation: Some notes on the

concept of scale in segregation research’.

In addition, in mid-July the principal applicant has been invited to give a keynote address

at the Contact50 conference in at the Ithala Game Reserve, KwaZulu-Natal, which is

being attended by South African, American and European theorists interested in

intergroup contact and segregation. This will overview some of research conducted as

part of the project under the title: ‘Schelling’s checkerboard revisited: Reflections on the

social psychology of preferential segregation’.

As well as these scholarly outputs, the project has also yielded some software that may be

valuable for future research. Perhaps most useful, we have developed SegStat, a program

for calculating indices of Exposure and Isolation and for using Monte Carlo simulation

techniques to subject observed patterns to statistical inference. In due course, the

program and a detailed manual will be made available as freeware on the Principal

Applicant’s website. In the meantime, it will be available on request.


References Clack, B. Dixon, J.A., Tredoux, C. (2005). Eating together apart: Patterns of segregation in a

multiethnic cafeteria. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 14, 1-16.

Dixon, J.A.& Durrheim, K. (2003). Contact and the ecology of racial division: Some varieties of informal segregation. British Journal of Social Psychology, 42, 1-23.

Dixon, J.A., Tredoux, C. & Clack, B. (2005). On the micro-ecology of racial division: A neglected dimension of segregation. South African Journal of Psychology, 35, 395-411.

Kirschenbaum, A. (1984). Segregated integration: A research note on the fallacy of misplaced numbers. Social Forces, 62, 784-793.

Massey, D. & Denton, N.A. (1993). American apartheid: Segregation and the making of the underclass. Cambridge: Howard University Press.

Massey, D.S. & Denton, N.A. (1988). The dimensions of residential segregation. Social Forces, 67, 281-315.

McCauley, C., Plummer, M., Moskalenko, S. & Mordkoff, J.B. (2001). The exposure index: A measure of intergroup contact. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 7, 321-336.

Pettigrew, T. F. & Tropp, L. (2000). Does intergroup contact reduce prejudice? In S. Oskamp (Ed.), Reducing prejudice and discrimination. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Reardon, S.F., Matthews, F., O’Sullivan, D., Lee, B., Firebaugh, G. & Farrell, C. (2006). Segregation and scale: The use and interpretation of spatial segregation profiles for investigating the causes, patterns and consequences of residential segregation. Unpublished paper.

Schelling, T.C. (1978). Micromotives and macrobehavior. New York: Norton.

Schnell, I. & Yoav, B. (2001). The sociospatial isolation of agents in everyday life spaces as an aspect of segregation. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 91, 622636.

Schofield, J.W. (1986). Black-white contact in desegregated schools. In M. Hewstone and R. Brown (Eds.), Contact and conflict in intergroup encounters. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Tredoux, C., Dixon, J, Underwood, S., Nunez, D., & Finchilescu, G., (2005). Methods for the naturalistic study of contact and segregation in informal social spaces. South African Journal of Psychology, 35, 412-432.

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Title: The micro-ecology of racial division: A neglected dimension … · 2015-09-08 · Title: The micro-ecology of racial division: A neglected dimension of segregation Principal