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FROM STRUCTURE TO AGENCY:
ESSAYS ON THE SPATIAL ANALYSIS
OF RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION
by
Yiming Wang
_________________________________________________________
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(POLICY, PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT)
May 2011
Copyright 2011 Yiming Wang
Object Description
| Title | From structure to agency: Essays on the spatial analysis of residential segregation |
| Author | Wang, Yiming |
| Author email | yiming.wang@gmail.com; WangY53@cf.ac.uk |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Policy, Planning & Development |
| School | School of Policy, Planning, and Development |
| Date defended/completed | 2011-03-03 |
| Date submitted | 2011 |
| Restricted until | Unrestricted |
| Date published | 2011-04-26 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Heikkila, Eric |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Ethington, Philip Gordon, Peter |
| Abstract | Contemporary urban spatial analysis arguably features an emphasis on spatial structure, whereas understudying the background agent actions. This dissertation is intended to address such oversight, by presenting three independent essays on the spatial analysis of residential segregation by race in urban America. Combining the three essays, this dissertation demonstrates a series of methodological considerations and innovations to rediscover agency in modern quantitative urban spatial analysis. Aside from its methodological orientation, this dissertation implicates a number of issues related to planning theory as well as public policy.; The first essay sets out by recognizing two types of variance generally associated with the phenomenon of racial residential segregation. One type involves differing racial compositions between spatial locations. The other is concerned with varying residential spatial distributions between ethnic groups. The essay then presents a spatial analytical approach to identify and measure the two types of variance through a decomposition of an entropy index regarding racial diversity. A region’s racial diversity entropy is found to comprise three factors: a) the overall spatial distribution of regional population; b) the ratio between the number of ethnic groups and that of spatial areal units within the region, and, c) the differential between two types of variance aforementioned. For demonstrative purpose census data from Los Angeles County are studied using this approach. The results suggest the second type of variance to be the primary contributor to the increasing racial diversity in Los Angeles. Implications regarding affordable homeownership and inclusionary housing policies are discussed accordingly.; The second essay delivers a nonlinear econometric model about White flight in Los Angeles, alluding to Thomas Schelling’s (1971) classic neighborhood tipping model. In this essay, the Schelling original is translated into a fuzzy set version and tested against demographic census data in Los Angeles County from 1960 to 1990. Results of nonlinear least squares regressions indicate that the tipping point has shifted from around 0.36 between 1960 and 1970 to 0.78 between 1980 and 1990. Regression results also suggest a constantly decreasing extent of White flight in the census tract level. These findings confirm the existence of the fuzzy tipping mechanism. They also reflect steady progression toward racially integrated urban residential pattern in Los Angles County from 1960 to 1990.; The third essay posits that segregation models often focus on private racial preference but overlook the institutional context. The essay thus represents an effort to move beyond such preference centricity. In the paper, an ideal Pigovian regulatory intervention is emulated and added into Schelling’s (1971) spatial proximity model of racial segregation, with an aim to preserve collective housing welfare against the negative externalities induced by the moving of individual agents. A large number of cellular automations generate some intriguing results. A key discovery is that the Pigovian regulation tends to render less efficient whereas more ethnically integrated residential patterns than laissez faire. This finding informs some current policy debates about the racial impacts of such housing regulation as zoning, which, albeit complex in practice, is arguably Pigovian by economic nature. On top of its policy implications, this paper demonstrates a micro simulation approach to reconcile the preference-based and institution-orientated intellectual perspectives regarding racial residential segregation. |
| Keyword | spatial analysis; residential segregation; urban; quantitative; modelling; Los Angeles |
| Geographic subject (county) | Los Angeles |
| Geographic subject (state) | California |
| Geographic subject (country) | USA |
| Coverage date | 1960/1990 |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m3774 |
| Rights | Wang, Yiming |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | http://www.usc.edu/isd/libraries/services/ask_a_librarian/email/ |
| Filename | etd-Wang-4449 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume44/etd-Wang-4449.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 1 |
| Full text | FROM STRUCTURE TO AGENCY: ESSAYS ON THE SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION by Yiming Wang _________________________________________________________ A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (POLICY, PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT) May 2011 Copyright 2011 Yiming Wang |
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