Browsing by Subject "Segregation"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    On the micro-ecology of racial division: A neglected dimension of segregation
    (SAGE Publications, 2005) Dixon, John; Tredoux, Colin; Clack, Beverley
    This article provides a general background to this special focus section of the journal on ‘racial interaction and isolation in everyday life’. It reviews both the geographic literature on segregation and the psychological literature on the contact hypothesis, and calls for more research on how, when and why racial isolation manifests at a microecological level; that is, the level at which individuals actually encounter one another in situations of bodily co-presence. Some conceptual and methodological implications of this extension of the segregation literature are described. The social psychological signifi cance of the racial organisation of such ordinary activities as eating in cafeterias, relaxing on beaches and occupying public seating are also explored. The focus of the argument is that everyday boundary processes may maintain the salience of racial categories, embody racial attitudes and regulate the possibility of intimate contact.
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    Patterns of racial segregation in residence dining halls
    (2005) Schrieff, Leigh; Tredoux, Colin; Dixon, John; Finchilescu, Gillian
    Social psychologists have long been interested in the effects of ‘contact’ between racial groups. The conditions under which this contact can manifest have usually been experimentally manipulated in order to determine optimal combinations. A shortcoming of this approach is that it constructs contact situations that are unnatural and contrived. Some researchers have proposed an approach that examines contact as a natural phenomenon (Dixon & Durrheim, 2003). The present research adopts this approach, and reports on a naturalistic, observational study of ‘contact’ between students in university residence dining-halls. Seating patterns of students were observed for one month and analysed along dimensions of spatial variation. The results show high levels of informal segregation and that the segregation manifests as a specifi c spatial confi guration. Such results, which occur despite the presence of apparently favourable conditions, illustrate how this approach may lead to different conclusions to those achieved through experimental manipulation.
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    Racialisation and the micro-ecology of contact
    (2005) Foster, Don
    This article reviews and comments on the six articles presented in the special focus section of this issue of the journal on ‘Racial isolation and interaction in everyday life’. Taken together, the articles call for a reinterpretation of the spaces of contact in everyday life, with a new focus on the ‘micro-ecology’ of racialised divisions. Contributions are made in three areas: (a) meta-theory, with a turn to materiality, (b) new methodologies, and (c) understandings of racial segregation and contact. The contact hypothesis is reconsidered with new emphases on relations between bodies–space–time. A ‘relational model’ is given in efforts at explanation.